Figure 1.--A German man writes about this boyhood snapshot, porobably taken in the late-1940s. Das Spielhöschen ist so richtig peinlich aber was solls, wird schon bequem gewesen sein." That means something like, "The Spielhöschen are really embarrassing, but on theother hand they were convenient." This seems to be an adult reflection. A boy this age would not have been embarassed anout wearing rompers.

The German and Austrian term for romper or barboteuse seems to be Spielhöschen . It is the specific term used for a children's play suit with puff pants. The general term for a small's child's play suit is Spielanzug, but this included many play outfits in addition to rompers. Not all our German readers agree that Spielhöschen means rompers. As in the United States there were differences in usage. Rompers in America was not used exclusively for juvenile outfits with puff pants. A reader explains, "Concerning rompers in German, there is no real translation. All the little garment alike pants with buttons; bib, very short pants for baby, the mothers say "Spielhöschen". HBC has noted the use of "Spielanzug". A reader reports that the most commonly used word for rompers in German is "Spielhöschen". He indicates that it is much more used in the popular language than "Spielanzug," (written allways with the upper case S and not the lowercase s). We have also noted the term "Mädchenstrampler" meaning girls rompers. The term for rompers in general would be Strampler. I'm not sure how commonly used this was.

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Created: 7:36 PM 8/17/2009
Last updated: 7:36 PM 8/17/2009