WUXTRA ! WUXTRA!: "hike down," "man up"

[Wilson Gray]

Maybe "commando" has somethig to do with, or is inspired by, the
masculine reference, "go commando," meaning not to wear any underwear
below the waist. A WAG is that this is, in turn, inspired by the fact
that the lack of undies makes it easy to determine by sight or by a
light touch whether a man has "pitched a tent."

I think that "go commando" is as old as "Seinfeld." I've heard "pitch
a tent" used by women on late-night dating shows - "I love it when I
can make a guy pitch a tent" - over the past couple or three years, at
least.

-Wilson

On 12/2/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      WUXTRA ! WUXTRA!: "hike down," "man up"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Fox's Alisyn Camerata on the Britney photos (there are at least two of them): "She doesn't appear to be trying to hike her skirt down."
>
>   Fox's Kelly Wright, upbraiding notably inarticulate photographer Edwin Merino for his "lack of responsibility in releasing these photos" which could encourage going commando by the bimbo masses: "But come on, man up, where's the responsibility here? Didn't you think that [etc., etc.]?"
>
>   UrbanDictionary.com has "man up" back to 2002. It's hard to search for.
>
>   Observers noted that the BRITNEY COMMANDO! caption was unaccompanied by glossarial interpretation.
>
>
>
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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-----
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