Your big-boy pants

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Long pants" are the traditional pants for big boys, in contradistinction
to the playground shorts worn by widdoo kids.

JL


On Fri, Jun 13, 2014 at 11:20 AM, 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: Your big-boy pants
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jun 13, 2014, at 11:05 AM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
>
> > <<
> > From: paul johnson
> >
> > I've been hearing "big girl panties" used that way for a minimum of 10
> > years.
> >>>
> >
> > Influenced by UK (?) slang, "big girl's blouse"?
> >
> > Robin Hamilton
>
> and in the UK there's also, unsurprisingly, "to put on one's big girl's
> knickers":
> http://www.biggirlknickers.com/
>
> LH
>
>
> >
> >
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On 6/13/2014 7:32 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> Philip Mudd, ex-CIA analyst, on CNN re Bergdahl:
> >>
> >> "As I said in the past, you gotta strap your big-boy pants on, 'cause
> >> there
> >> ain't no good decisions!"
> >>
> >> SWAG: suggested by the checked pants of the Big Boy Restaurant Big Boy.
> >>
> >> And "You're a big boy now."
> >>
> >> 271,000 raw hits for "your big boy pants on."
> >>
> >> JL
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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