Stays/Corset question (1700s)

[Miss Elisabeth]

In the 1700s, I've seen things labled corsets and stays. Are they the same thing? If they're different, how so?

Miss E.

[Merja]

I´m not expert on this, but if I had to say something I´d say that stays is the correct word but corset is better known today. They are sometimes called corsets just so even larger non-expert group would understand what they are.

[diana]

I believe that stays are boning.

[Miss Elisabeth]

well, if stays are boning, then how come you don't usually refur to 1800s one s as stays?

Miss E.

[AspiringCostumer]

I'm no expert, but I'm fairly certain that in the 1700s, a corset was refered to as a pair of stays. And later on, (like Victorian) it was a pair of corsets. If my memory serves me correctly, the term corset as a singular is a modern thing. And stays can refer to the boning in a corset.

[Miss Elisabeth]

Got it!

[diana]

The stays are sticking into me.

[DABramwell]

From my translations of french literature from the period in question: 18th century corsets were always refered to in the plural and were called variously and with no clear distinction a pair of: stays, bodies, or jumps. I'm not sure when the word corset was coined, but if it was arround at that point it was in rarer use than the above, at least for the french.

[ashamanja babu]

The word corset, I've read, comes from the French corps, meaning body; what was a pair of bodies in English was a corps and eventually a corset in French. I think the term came into use in English sometime between 1820-1845. But really, corset, stays, bodies, etc., it's all the same thing: a support garment for a the torso.
Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines is the best book I have ever read on the subject; highly reccommended.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0878305262/qid=1119533333/sr=8-3/ref=pd_bbs_ur_3/103-3518092-4750248?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

-ashamanja babu