Who Said The Boxer and What Boxer?

When I hear the word "boxer" a boxer player is the last thing that would cross my mind — the reason why is very simple. English is not my first language, and when someone would say a boxer in my country and on my mother tongue, I would think about two other things first and before a boxer player.

One of those other things that would most likely cross my mind first is brass knuckles. This item which is, in fact, a sort of weapon we also call "the boxer," and we pronounce it just the same.

When I was a young teenage girl the boys of my age, trying to reach their mature age and manhood, wrongly thinking they would already appear as such if they pretend to be tough and invincible.

To allegedly achieve that robust manhood appearance they would buy those brass knuckles and walk around in small groups wearing them on hands tucked deep in their pockets, and just occasionally while passing by another group of young boys showing them as some warning sign that should say "don't even think to mess with us and don't approach!" It was their way of showing off and pretending to be tough, untouchable and invincible.

The other thing that would cross my mind is boxer briefs or boxer shorts, as we call them "boxers" ("boxerice"). In fact, there are three different clothing items we call like that. One is man's underwear or men's underpants that are most often although not necessarily quite tight to the body with a bit longer trouser legs (something like square leg pants).

The second one is men's swimsuit or swimwear, but not the tight to the body one. Quite in contrary, they are way wider but also with longer trouser legs (above the knees). Something you'll probably be more familiar with as board shorts, swim trunks or even lifeguard suit or lifeguard swimwear.

The third one is simple men's shorts very alike the above ones but not for the swimming. This type of men's clothing is the rarest called as "boxers" ("boxerice"), but it can be heard from time to time.

So, when I heard the word "boxer" the above listed four items would cross my mind first. Only after that, I would think about some boxer player.

^{_{Image from Pixabay. Credits to Pexels for boxer-boxing, used under the CC0 Creative Commons license.}}

I know, some philosophy specialist would dig for some secret or even Freudian meaning of my thoughts flow over the word "boxer," most likely explaining it as some sexual triggering word that would immediately invoke some strong and powerful muscular men's body images in my mind.

But, as you can see the reasons might be quite ordinary and simple, so I'm not going to argue about possible philosophy specialist theories. If nothing, now you will know why my thoughts flow is going like that.
(Different countries, different languages, different customs, different habits, different understandings!)

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Posted on Friday, December 7, 2018

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This is my entry for @mariannewest's "Day 412: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: boxer"

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