tighty-whitey

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 19:20:30 -0500, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

>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.)
>>
>>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

The same spelling is found in Connie Eble's _Slang and Sociability_,
attested at UNC Chapel Hill in 1991.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0807845841/?v=search-inside&keywords=tighty


--Ben Zimmer