being pants (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Fri, Jun 08, 2012 at 11:50:42AM -0400, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 6/8/2012 11:28 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> >Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >Caveats: NONE
> >
> >The email from which I took the quote came from the UK.
>
> But it doesn't quite fit the OED's definition?  I don't see how one
> could replace "(being) pants" with "rubbish', "nonsense", or "crap"
> in the quotation.  The writer is apologizing for not having done
> something, not for having, say, written rubbish.

It could be clarified--I've already put in a note for this--but in
British use _rubbish_ can be 'very bad', not just 'a piece of trash'.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

> Joel
>
>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> >Behalf Of
> >> Jesse Sheidlower
> >> Sent: Friday, June 08, 2012 10:24 AM
> >> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >> Subject: Re: being pants (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >>
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >----------------------
> >> -
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: being pants (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >>
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >------
> >> -
> >>
> >> On Fri, Jun 08, 2012 at 10:21:17AM -0500, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> >> > Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >> > Caveats: NONE
> >> >
> >> > Never heard this before:
> >> >
> >> > " First off, apologies for being pants at sending out my newsletter
> >> > recently. Thanks for everyone who's emailed me asking if I'm still
> >doing
> >> > it."
> >> >
> >> > I assume, from context, that "being pants" means "not doing a very
> >good
> >> > job" or "being delinquent" or something similar.
> >>
> >> It's almost exclusively British slang, euphemistic for _crap_ or the
> >> like. OED has this from 1994, at _pants_ n. sense 4.
> >>
> >> Jesse Sheidlower
> >> OED
> >>
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> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> >Caveats: NONE
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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