another euphemism

[Garson O'Toole]

OED DRAFT ADDITIONS DECEMBER 2006
commando, n.
slang (orig. U.S.). to go commando: to wear no underpants (beneath
one's clothing).
1974 Current U.N.C. Slang (Univ. N. Carolina, Chapel Hill)
(typescript) Spring, Go commando, to be without underwear.

On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: another euphemism
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
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>> 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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>>
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