Getting Ready For School At 5AM

Why is a T-shirt called a “tee”?

A T-shirt got its name from its shape: when you lay one flat, the body and sleeves form the letter T. Americans shorten the word to tee, spelled like the letter pronounced. Both T-shirt and tee are everyday English now, and clothing brands stack the letter into all kinds of names: V-neck tee, graphic tee, ringer tee, white tee. The same letter-as-shape pattern shows up elsewhere too: A-line skirt, V-neck sweater, U-bend pipe.

In this clip, an American teen picks an outfit for school and lands on a white tee. The pun in her line, “white without the e,” plays on how tee sounds the same as the letter T.