Two runners wearing different styles of tank top.
- For other uses, see Tank (disambiguation).
In American English, a tank top is a sleeveless shirt-like garment that can be worn by either sex. It is often worn under the shirt as an underwear, though more colourful and well-designed tanks are usually worn as a shirt. The term is also used in Australian English, although the term singlet is more common in Australia. In British English, the term vest is used, while "tank top" refers to a sleeveless pullover. In India, such a vest, primarily designed to be an undershirt, is called a baniyaan.
The name Tank top, recorded in English since 1968, derives from its resemblance to a tank suit, a style of one-piece women's swimsuit with shoulder straps, so called since the 1920s, because it was worn in a "swimming tank," an obsolete term for what are now called "swimming pools."
Tank tops are often worn by athletes in sports such as track and field and bicycling.
Tank tops have been popular warm-weather casual wear in the United States since the 1980s and are regarded as acceptable public casual dress in most locales there.
A female swimming version of the tank top, the tankini (the word reminisces a bikini), is also an option.
Sources
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See also
- Wifebeater (shirt)
- Sleeveless T-shirt
- Muscle shirt
- A-shirt
