"Slacks"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I ask for "Lee" or "Wrangler."

JL

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 12:03 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Slacks"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Oct 24, 2012, at 11:56 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > At 10/24/2012 10:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >> I never say "slacks."
> >
> > When you go into the clothing store, do you ask for "dress
> > pants"?  Isn't that an oxymoron?
> >
> There's always "trousers".  But for me "dress pants" is neither ill-formed
> nor oxymoronic, since chinos, khakis, whatever, are non-dress pants,
> although I concede that "casual slacks" strikes me as more natural than
> "casual pants".
>
> LH
>
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