Sans Culottes

Sans Culottes ("The Breechless"), was a name given in derision in 1789 to the tag-rag and bobtail portion of the French revolutionists, and, like the similar derisive epithet Les Gueux ("The Beggars"), applied to the revolted inhabitants of the Netherlands at an earlier period, was afterwards adopted as a name of honour by those to whom it had been applied.