[Ads-l] Your big-boy pants

[Jonathan Lighter]

I've heard this on TV a number of times in the last year, so I decided to
dive deeper. All from Newspapers.com:

1998_Orlando [Fla.] Sentinel_ (July 31)  (Calende)r 9: That's when I tell
them, "Put your tongue back in your mouth, and go put your big-boy pants
on."

1999 _Birmingham [Ala.] Post-Herald_ (Mar. 31) G1: They're running as hard
as they can each and every lap....That really opened my eyes and made me
realize I had to put my big-by pants on.

 2002 _St. Joseph [Mo.] News-Press_ (Feb. 17) D6:  Johnson's wearing his
big boy pants....His golly-gee Wally Cleaver looks are still the same, but
make no mistake, he's wearing his big boy pants.

 2004 _Spectrum_  (Saint George, Ut.) (June 7) A3: My father-in-law, a
not-so-old 80-year-old rancher from Idaho, has a saying: "Put on your
big-boy pants and do it!"

2005 _Republican_ (Springfield, Mass.) (Nov. 18) 21: Sports...Ex-Pat Smith
now on Saints..."When I was in Tennessee, Chris Brown went down and I had
to put my big boy pants back on....Unfortunately, this happened to Deuce,
so then I had to pull my big boy pants out again.

 2006 _Kingsport [Tenn.] Times-News_ (Sept. 7)  (GoTo Guide) 17: There are
a lot of you who need to slip on your big-boy pants before you step up to
the keyboard and start typing.

2008 _Fort Worth Star-Telegram_  (Apr. 3) 4D:   NBA...The Mavericks' star
hikes up his big-boy pants, tapes his ankles and hoops it up.

2010 _Florence [S.C.]  Morning News_ (June 6) 6: Give me a break! S.C.
Department of Transportation, put on your big boy pants and oet people
drive the bypass.

My proposed derivation from the Big Boy restaurant chain was clearly in
error. "Big-boy pants" are what many toddlers call ordinary trousers. (I
don't believe I ever did, but who's to say?)

JL

On Sun, Jun 15, 2014 at 4:09 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Your big-boy pants
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Jun 15, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > My understanding also.
>
>
> That's also the way that Judge Marilyn uses it.
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org