Oil prices and twisted knickers

Over at Knowledge Problem Lynne Kiesling has a handy guide to the reasons for rising oil prices, together with a learned analysis of the real cost of petrol/gas compared to household incomes.

In a reply to a comment on her original post Lynne says:
...I stated it explicitly precisely because we get so knotted up in our knickers about it.

This had me start a semi-fruitless search for the derivation of the expression, "to have one's knickers in a knot". All I have managed to find is that (British) English appears to refer to getting knickers in a twist; (Australian) English refers to getting your knickers knotted; and, (US) English prefers getting your panties in a wad.

However, Lynne - being the progressive scholar of Jane Austen that she is - has taken the phrase and changed it so that it's the wearer of the knickers who is now getting knotted and not the aforesaid garments themselves. I think her contemporary revision of the standard text adds a certain clarity to the expression.

Can anyone shed light on the original derivation?!

Comments

[ninme]

As an American, I've always heard and said "Don't get yer panties in a twist."

I've always assumed it had something to do with the posture one acquires when one has to go to the bathroom so badly he gets all nervous. Or at least that's how it always worked in my head. I have absolutely nothing to back that up, though.

[the Pirate]

Her changing in a way confuses what reaction the comment is mocking. Typically its used when refering to a pesron getting worked up over something, typically to the point of nitpicking. Commonly called being anal retentive (also know as splitting hairs), anal retentive typicall implies clinching of the buttcheecks and leads to the knoting up of one's panties.

[dearieme]

To a Briton it sounds like a mixture of "Don't get your knickers in a twist" and "Get knotted". The latter refers, I've always assumed, to the singular contents of a male's knickers.