another euphemism

[Garson O'Toole]

Wikipedia has an entry on "go commando" that gives a citation in 1985
in the Chicago Tribune. I checked the cite in ProQuest and it is ok.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_commando

Cite: 1985 January 22, Chicago Tribune, Tempo: Marking the golden
anniversary of a brief success by Jim Spencer, Page D1, Chicago,
Illinois. (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)

Furthermore, colored briefs are "sleazy" and going without underwear
("going commando," as they say on campus) is simply gross.


On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: another euphemism
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 4:31 PM -0400 6/16/10, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>>1996 September 26 was the airdate of a Friends episode that included
>>the term "go commando" according to one website.
>
> I remember it from Seinfeld, which would have been from the same
> period.  I don't know which was first.
>
> LH
>
>>Here is an excerpt
>>and a link from the website:
>>
>>Friends Episode 3.02
>>The One Where No One's Ready
>>
>>Ross: Okay, now hold on. Joey, why can't you just wear the underwear
>>you're wearing now?
>>Joey: Because, um, I'm not wearing any underwear now.
>>Ross: Okay, then why do you have to wear underwear tonight?
>>Joey: It's a rented tux, Okay. I'm not gonna go commando in another
>>man's fatigues.
>>
>>Credits
>>Written by Ira Ungerleider
>>Directed by Gail Mancuso
>>Peter Dennis as Sherman Whitfield
>>Aired 09/26/96, 12/19/96, 7/3/97, 3/25/2004
>>
>>http://www.friends-tv.org/zz302.html
>>
>>The ADS archive contains a thread on this topic. Here is an excerpt
>>from one message:
>>
>>Subject:         BRITNEY COMMANDO!!
>>From:   Jonathan Lighter
>>Reply-To:       American Dialect Society <[log in to unmask]>
>>Date:   Sat, 2 Dec 2006 05:21:50 -0800
>>
>>LA-LA LAND (Dec. 2).--Britney Spears, fresh from her Las Vegas BIMBO
>>SUMMIT!  with  Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, has been photographed
>>emerging from a limousine clearly wearing no underwear.
>>
>>   The story, first reported by the Fox News Channel, was accompanied
>>by the on-screen caption  "BRITNEY COMMANDO!"  (To "go commando" is
>>teenspeak, documented by linguist Pamela Munro and others, meaning "to
>>wear no underwear.")
>>
>>   The phrase was popularized some years ago by an episode of the
>>popular NBC series _Friends_.
>>
>>
>>On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 1:53 PM, Lisa Galvin <lisagal23 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Lisa Galvin <lisagal23 at HOTMAIL.COM>
>>>  Subject:      Re: another euphemism
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  =20
>>>  I am not familiar with the term "rocking" in that sense=2C but I think the =
>>>  first time I personally heard the phrase "going commando" was on an episode=
>>>   of the TV show Friends=2C so that would put it somewhere in the mid-to lat=
>>>  e 90s? No idea where/when it actually started=2C though.
>>>
>>>  =20
>>>
>>>  Lisa Galvin
>>>
>>
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