Your big-boy pants

[Neal Whitman]

I first started noticing "put on your BBP" during the Super Bowl this
year, when one or two of the commentators kept using it. I did some
research on it a while back, and the earliest example I found (aside
from examples from actual parenting and potty-training advice) was this:


      1.Hurlyburly: And, Those the River Keeps : Two Plays
      <http://books.google.com/books?id=RCpBGKSSQ_UC&pg=PT89&dq=%22big+boy+pants%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LNV8U8nXFs-aqAbo44KIBQ&ved=0CHkQ6AEwCA>

books.google.com/books?isbn=0802196934

David Rabe
<https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&biw=1024&bih=707&tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:1/1/1990,cd_max:12/31/2000&tbm=bks&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22David+Rabe%22&sa=X&ei=LNV8U8nXFs-aqAbo44KIBQ&ved=0CHsQ9AgwCA>
- 1995 - ?Preview
<http://books.google.com/books?id=RCpBGKSSQ_UC&pg=PT89&dq=%22big+boy+pants%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LNV8U8nXFs-aqAbo44KIBQ&ved=0CHwQuwUwCA>
- ?More editions
<https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&biw=1024&bih=707&tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:1/1/1990,cd_max:12/31/2000&tbm=bks&q=editions:kwdtisIYU4kC&sa=X&ei=LNV8U8nXFs-aqAbo44KIBQ&ved=0CH0QmBYwCA>

It's time to drink from a glass and wear /big-boy pants/, Susie. Grow up
and throw Phil out! Do you understand me? SUSIE: Is that what you want?
You want me to just casually throw my marriage out the window.

Neal


On 6/13/2014 8:32 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Your big-boy pants
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Philip Mudd, ex-CIA analyst, on CNN re Bergdahl:
>
> "As I said in the past, you gotta strap your big-boy pants on, 'cause there
> ain't no good decisions!"
>
> SWAG: suggested by the checked pants of the Big Boy Restaurant Big Boy.
>
> And "You're a big boy now."
>
> 271,000 raw hits for "your big boy pants on."
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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>

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