A skort, sometimes called a scooter or 'skant', resembles a skirt all the way around, and has shorts underneath.

Some skorts are essentially skirts with a pair of shorts hidden underneath, though most resemble a pair of shorts with a panel of fabric over the front.

History

The term "skort" (a portmanteau of skirt

Skirt

A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...

 and shorts

Shorts

Shorts are a bifurcated garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, circling the waist, and covering the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to or even below the knee, but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they are a shortened...

) is used idiomatically in some regions. While some garments sold as culottes

Culottes

Culottes is a word that originated in French. Historically, "culottes" referred to the knee-breeches commonly worn by gentlemen of the European upper-classes from the late Middle Ages or Renaissance through the early nineteenth century. This style of tight pants ending just below the knee was first...

 resemble short trousers

Trousers

Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...

, to be a skort they need to look like skirts. They are distinguished from trousers

Trousers

Trousers are an item of clothing worn on the lower part of the body from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately...

 or shorts by a fuller cut at the bottom (hem

Hem

To hem a piece of cloth is to sew a cut edge in such a way as to prevent unraveling of the fabric.There are many different styles of hems of varying complexities. The most common hem...

) than at the waist.

Skorts were developed in order to provide more freedom to do activities such as gardening, cleaning, or bike riding, and give the appearance of a skirt.

Women's sports

Skorts are popular in sports such as field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

, tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 and golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, and are often part of girls' athletic uniforms.

Women began to play golf in large numbers in the 1960s which led to the development of the famous Leon Levin "Q" skirt or "skort" which offered the freedom of shorts and soft lines of a skirt. The article became an immediate favorite on the Ladies Professional Golf Tour

LPGA

The LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters is in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from...

. Professional golfers famously known for wearing skorts are Natalie Gulbis

Natalie Gulbis

Natalie Anne Gulbis is an American professional golfer of Latvian descent who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.-Golf career:...

 & Paula Creamer

Paula Creamer

Paula Creamer is an American professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. As a professional, she has won 11 tournaments, including 9 LPGA Tour events. Creamer has been as high as number 2 in the Women's World Golf Rankings. She was the 2010 U.S...

.