Light in the Loafers

[Miller, Jerry]

If my memory is any good at all, I am fairly sure Johnny Carson (who did a
lot to nationalize the phrase, I think) was using it well before '89.

Jerry Miller
Franklin College

 -----Original Message-----
From:   Jesse Sheidlower [mailto:jester at PANIX.COM]
Sent:   Saturday, August 11, 2001 11:50 AM
To:     ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:        Re: Light in the Loafers

> Been seeing the phrase "a little light in the loafers" as a euphemism for
> gay lately. Is this new? And how come this phrase?

HDAS has an entry for this, with the earliest for this form being 1989,
though there is a "light on the feet" from 1970 and a "lightfooted" a
bit earlier than that.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED