Thirteen and the odd

[Michael Quinion]

Douglas Wilson wrote:

> Not even a healthy WAG!

Thanks for all your efforts. I've not been able to find out anything more
about the expression either. All one can say for certain is that it means
formal male evening dress of some sort and that it's well enough recorded
over several decades that it can't be a nonce formation. I note Jonathon
Green records it in the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, with the sense of a
tail-coat, though with the sad annotation "ety. unknown". We must just
leave it as one of life's eternal mysteries ...


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

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