If the cardinal points of costume are Robes,Tato, Rig and Scunge, where are shorts in this compass? Theyare the never Robes as other bareleg outfits have been: the toga, the kilt, the lava-lava, the Mahatma's cotton dhoti; archbishops and field marshals at their ceremonies never wear shorts. The very word means underpants in North America.

-Murray, Les(lie Allan)
  Selected Poems,'The Dream of  Wearing Shorts Forever'.