[Ads-l] bossy pants/bossypants

[Laurence Horn]

Maybe Tina Fey’s memoir _Bossypants_ has contributed to the perception Dan notes.

> On Nov 12, 2020, at 2:35 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> “Mr. Bossypants” is how I usually think of the word and that version has plenty of hits on Google. That’s not to say, however, that there isn’t some sort of sexism inherent in the word. BB
> 
>> On 12 Nov 2020, at 11:27, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> 
>> Is the phrase inherently sexist? A guy would just be called bossy; a woman
>> is called bossypants.
>> DanG
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 11:24 AM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Not in the OED or Merriam-Webster.
>>> 
>>> Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bossy_pants <
>>> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bossy_pants>) has labeled as informal.
>>> 
>>> The Spectator, vol 256, apparently 1986, has it twice
>>> https://tinyurl.com/yytg8xcm <https://tinyurl.com/yytg8xcm>
>>> 
>>> ###
>>> Having quite successfully built up the impression of Mrs Thatcher as a
>>> petulant bossy pants who cannot bear to lose even on a single relatively
>>> minor issue…
>>> 
>>> When people understand what [Mrs Thatcher] is up to, they regard her as a
>>> great leader; when they don’t, she is a bossy pants.
>>> ###
> 
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org