canion

plural canions

1. historicalin pluraloftenOne of a pair of fitted tubes of cloth worn in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries below short trunk hose and above stockings to cover the leg in between them, sometimes joined to the hose (sometimes reduced to ornamental rolls terminating the legs of the hose), and sometimes joined to each other as breeches worn under the hose.

   1975, Doreen Yarwood, European Costume: 4000 Years of Fashion, Larousse Kingfisher Chambers […] playing a decorated upper hose or canion beneath on the thigh (510C, H).

   5 more examples

   Varieties in nether garments introduced during this decade included 'Venetians' and trunk-hose with canion. These introductions, however, did not oust the now familiar trunk-hose which remained in favour until […]

   1950, Jack Eric Morpurgo, Life Under the Tudors

   ... and pickardevant came over with an Italian marqueshe, and was worne (as I remember) with the shorte Rownd hose, and the long canion by the worthy earle of Pancridge Alderman of lye, when I was a boye & long after and had yt bine in ...

   1999 (quoting an earlier work), Martin Butler, Re-Presenting Ben Jonson: Text, History, Performance, Springer, page 138

   ... Collins herself to be wearing what I should imagine are meant to be canion and hose, rather than bloomers as you describe them. And do bear in mind, Nanny sweet, whatever costume Edward is wearing at present it is only for the play.

   2011, Charlotte Bingham, Debutantes: (Debutantes: 1): a delightful and stylish saga focusing on the battle for love, power, money and privilege from bestselling author Charlotte Bingham, Random House, →ISBN, page 181

   (Trunk-hose are either worn with long cloth stockings sewn to them, or—from about 1570—they are equipped with canions.) For a while they appear to have lost […] Fig. 633. Canion Nether stocks were 'curiously knitte with open seam down the […]

   2013, Herbert Norris, Tudor Costume and Fashion, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 634

   The extraordinary exaggeration of Renaissance trunk hose. Knee-length, easy-fitting canion hose from Italy bedecked the fashionable male thigh, while trunk hose (sometimes gaily partnered with canions) bloomed out over the buttocks ...

   2015, Lucy Adlington, Stitches in Time: The Story of the Clothes We Wear, Random House, →ISBN

2. obsoleteObsolete form of canyon.