As promised, the follow-up poll on t-shirts

[conuly]

Poll #22936 T-shirts

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 121

View Respondents

Can a t-shirt have long sleeves?

View Answers

Yes, definitely.
43 (35.5%)

I know some people have that usage, but I don't.
8 (6.6%)

A "t-shirt" cannot have long sleeves, but a "long sleeve t-shirt" can.
62 (51.2%)

No.
8 (6.6%)

Comments

[lavendertook]

Good qualifications! I would have said a t-shirt can have long sleeves, but yes, I do call that a long-sleeved t-shirt. My mind's Platonic t-shirt is always short sleeved, even if I can understand a sleeveless or long sleeved shirt as a t-shirt as well. My mind images just aren't as flexible as my conversational understanding. I have been trying to get that guy who pops up in my head every time someone says "doctor" since I've been knee high out of my head, and that lousy bastard (he's probably white, straight, and cis as well) just keeps camping out and refuses to cede ground to a woman until I tell him every damned time. Every damned time! Colonization starts at home at day one.

[conuly]

Bah, doctors. You'll defeat him one of these days.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Now, to be fair, if one asks for a t-shirt and does not specify long sleeves, one is most likely* to get short sleeves.

Except perhaps right now, since this is sweater season and having long sleeves helps.

*like Ivory Soap purity likely.

[steorra]

It looks more like a T if it has long sleeves than if it has short sleeves.

[conuly]

Interesting fact, but not the question I asked.

[steorra]

No, but it's an elaboration on my poll answer. If it didn't still look like a T I wouldn't be willing to count it as a T-shirt.

[conuly]

Bit of a weird etymology when you think of it. Don't all shirts, if sleeved, sorta look like the letter T?

[steorra]

Yeah...

[oloriel]

Not really. If the sleeves are fixed to the top in the standard shirt way, it looks rather like an arrow pointing upwards. If the sleeves are short, I suppose it looks like the tyr-rune, which technically has a sound value of T, but it's still not quite the same shape...

[havocthecat]

I think it's technically a henley when it has long sleeves.

[adrian_turtle]

Technically, being a henley requires buttons. Not buttons all the way up--maybe a quarter or a third of the way down. I used to see henleys with 3/4 sleeves in baseball uniforms, but not so much these days...maybe because they make undershirts of stretchier material?

[havocthecat]

This is why I don't do fashion. Fashion is too complicated for me.

[conuly]

What's a hen lay?

[havocthecat]

Yep, this is definitely why I don't do fashion, never mind!

[conuly]

Sighs. You're supposed to say "eggs".

[dewline]

...what?

[conuly]

What what?

[pauamma]

I have no opinion.

[conuly]

Oh, then vote with me.

[antisoppist]

Oh. I've only just realised T-shirts are called T-shirts because they are T-shaped.

I'm a vote for short-sleeved but I am aware it has changed over time. I never quite know what to call the long-sleeved ones and tend to go with "long-sleeved top".

[conuly]

Oh. I've only just realised T-shirts are called T-shirts because they are T-shaped.

Oddly enough, though that's the generally accepted etymology, there is at least one competing claimant.

[spikethemuffin]

Shrugs. When someone says, "t-shirt," I expect short sleeves unless otherwise specified. When someone says, "horse," I expect something more than fourteen hands high at the withers. Doesn't make a pony not a horse, just makes it a deviation from the Platonic ideal or something something object-oriented programming.

I kind of wonder what it means that a t-shirt with a certain type of collar is a "polo t-shirt," but a "long-sleeved polo" does not count as a t-shirt for me. (Spoiler: English, fashion, and I are a bunch of weirdos, that's what it means.)

[darkoshi]

I consider long sleeved t-shirts to be a separate thing rather than a subset of t-shirts, like prairie dogs aren't a subset of dogs, even though they have some things in common.

[conuly]

And, judging by the poll, you are not alone!