/ ˈtæŋgə; NAmE / noun
( BrE ) a piece of women's or men's underwear for the lower part of the body, consisting of a small front and back part connected by narrow sections
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WORD ORIGIN
early 20th cent. (denoting a loincloth worn by indigenous peoples in tropical America): from Portuguese , ultimately of Bantu origin. (Bantu is a group of Niger-Congo languages). The current sense dates from the 1970s.