General / Off-Topic Terms that need Explanation...

steevaavoo

steevaavoo
Hootmon said:
I hear Brits refer to bad things as 'pants'. Are pants bad in England? I thought only the Scots wore kilts all the time.

Just kidding about the last bit. Please dont kill me...

Example... http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30873
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I remember "pants" was a particularly bad review score for a game in an old magazine called PC-Zone.

It became part of my own rating system as a result.

It's basically a reference to old-fashioned Y-fronts or "tidy-whiteys" as I believe they're also known.

And generally it means something is rubbish.
 

steevaavoo

steevaavoo
Hootmon said:
They are called 'briefs' here. When did they become old-fashioned?


Assuming I get the reference now, why are they 'rubbish'?
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Crivvens! According to the below, it came from the US!

Apart from this, I really don't know. Neither does Google, it seems...

Seems to be quite a bit older than UK use, and originally US, in origin:

OED:
P1. U.S. colloq. (a person's) name is pants and variants: indicating that someone is discredited or unpopular, or has failed. Now rare.

1886 College Courier (Monmouth, Illinois) Jan. 15/2 O! dignity, thy name is pants when thou essayist to hold a candle to the Coup.
1893 Puck (N.Y.) 12 July 324/2 When things don't come a man's way right off he gits to thinkin' his name is pants.
1921 Hamburg (Iowa) Reporter 9 June, We will never be able to play another ball game and our name will be ‘pants’ from this day on for ever more.
1931 Moberly (Missouri) Monitor-Index14 Oct. 7/5 Farmer's prayer... O Mighty Hoover, who are in Washington, when not fishing on the Rapidan. Thy name is pants.
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Hootmon

Hootmon
I should mention that Im not ignorant of British things.

My Mother is from Bournemouth. She is still an English citizen, but has only visited occasionally in the least 60 years.

Ive seen all of the Doctor Who eps (except some of the first two Doctors). Im pretty sure Ive watched all of the Time Team eps. Black Adder, Red Dwarf, Graham Norton...
 

Cmdr Andy B

Cmdr Andy B
Hootmon said:
They are called 'briefs' here. When did they become old-fashioned?


Assuming I get the reference now, why are they 'rubbish'?
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i dont think rubbish was the original intent of that description, more like full of biodegradable human waste ;)

as in what a load of....

steevaavoo said:
It's an exclamation or an expression of horror.

Etymology...... Unknown.

Goodness, we are delving deep into the darkest realms of Olde English this eve...
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i think its Scottish in origin, i know Terry P uses it often as part of the speech pattern of the Nac mac feegle and they are very defiantly based on the Scots
 
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Hootmon

Hootmon
steevaavoo said:
It's an exclamation or an expression of horror.

Etymology...... Unknown.

Goodness, we are delving deep into the darkest realms of Olde English this eve...
Click to expand...
Sorry. Im a bit of an anglophile considering where my Mother came from, but I find a lot of the terms fairly impenetrable.
 
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