tighty-whitey

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 18:57:49 -0500, Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>> my latest Language Log posting --
>>   http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001992.html
>> -- takes up "tighty-whitey" (and "whitey-tighty") vs. "tidy-whitey".
>> anyone have any datings on this one?  (it's not in the obvious places.)
>>
>> arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)
>
>I first encountered the term (with Ts all around) on usenet in the late
>90s. Googling usenet groups shows a few instances prior to 1996. The
>earliest
><http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.sys.amiga.advocacy/msg/9d9dd2ced69ecd5b?dmode=source>,
>from 1993, provides an explanation of the term, suggesting that the
>writer thought readers might not be familiar with it.

Goes back to 1990 with the spelling "tighty-whities":

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.sex/msg/199e559efaa1431f


--Ben Zimmer