The term wifebeater reportedly became synonymous for an undershirt after a 1947 criminal case when a Detroit man was arrested for beating his wife to death. News outlets are alleged to have printed a photo of him in a stained undershirt and referred to him as "the wife beater."

Who came up with the name wife beater?

According to Mic Media , how the A-shirt got associated with domestic violence came in the case of James Hartford Jr. in 1947. Hartford beat his wife to death and had a caption in the newspaper titled “the wife-beater.” But Hartford's crime was only one part of the equation.

Who invented the term wife beater shirt?

A sleeveless ribbed undershirt, typically white. The term was coined in 1947. There are several theories as to how it surfaced—one is that it originated in the wake of a horrific crime that went viral. The crime was committed by a man named James Hartford Jr., who beat his wife to death.