Where did the saying keep your pants on come from?

Where did the saying keep your pants on come from?

Origin: Started sometime in the mid-1800s. Before fighting, men would often take off their shirts to avoid damaging them. It originally meant don’t rush into a fight. “Keep your pants on” is a spin-off of this phrase.

What does Pants mean in slang?

uncountable noun. If you say that something is pants, you mean that it is very poor in quality. [British, informal]

What does the cliche keep your shirt on mean?

I’ll be ready in a minute

What does being pants mean?

US, informal. : in an embarrassing position (as of being unprepared to act) pants. verb. pantsed; pantsing; pantses.

Why do English people say pants?

In the UK “Pants” typically refers to underwear. (Where it is also a slang term for “bad”. As in “That’s pants”.) In other parts of the world, notably the USA, “pants” refers to trousers.

Why do British say pants?

So, too, did the word pants. Brits use the word as a shortening of underpants—a word that was itself only first attested from 1911, while Americans have continued the more established trend of applying it to trousers.

Is pants a bad word in England?

TIL that in England in the 1800’s, ‘Pants’ was considered a dirty word. Well, technically it still is, because over here “pants” are what you wear under trousers. Obviously it’s not swear word of the century, but it’s more “dirty” than it is in ‘Murika. In the UK “Pants” typically refers to underwear.

Why do British people say Zed?

In most English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the letter’s name is zed /zɛd/, reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta (this dates to Latin, which borrowed X, Y, and Z from Greek, along with their names), but in American English its name is zee …

Why do Canadians say aboot?

Canadians do something called ‘Canadian Raising’, meaning that they pronounce some two-part vowels (known as dipthongs) with a higher part of their mouths than people from other English-speaking regions – this is what causes the ‘ou’ sounds in words like ‘out’ and ‘about’ to be pronounced something like ‘oot’ and ‘ …

Is Z pronounced zed or zee?

Zed is the name of the letter Z. The pronunciation zed is more commonly used in Canadian English than zee. English speakers in other Commonwealth countries also prefer the pronunciation zed.

Why do Americans say period?

In 19th-century texts, both British English and American English were consistent in their usage of the terms period and full stop. The word period was used as a name for what printers often called the “full point”, the punctuation mark that was a dot on the baseline and used in several situations.

Does UK have periods?

The article American and British English differences consistently uses “U.S.” (with stops) but “UK” (without stops).

Does the UK need full stops?

British usage favours omitting the full stop in abbreviations which include the first and last letters of a single word, such as Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr and St; American usage prefers (A) Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. and St., with full stops. Most other abbreviated titles, however, require a full stop, as shown above.

Do you put periods after initials?

A period ( . ) is a form of punctuation used to end a declarative sentence. Periods are frequently, but not always used, after initials and with two-letter abbreviations (U.S.). Periods should be placed inside closing quotation marks, except when followed by a parenthetical note.

Is it called England or UK?

To start with, there’s the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The U.K., as it is called, is a sovereign state that consists of four individual countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Is Britain and England the same?

The UK – a sovereign state that includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Great Britain – an island situated off the north west coast of Europe. British Isles – a collection of over 6,000 islands, of which Great Britain is the largest. England – a country within the UK.

Why is Ireland Not in the UK?

When Ireland suddenly declared itself a republic in 1949, thus making it impossible to remain in the British Commonwealth, the UK government legislated that even though the Republic of Ireland was no longer a British dominion, it would not be treated as a foreign country for the purposes of British law.

Does England still own Ireland?

The rest of Ireland (6 counties) was to become Northern Ireland, which was still part of the United Kingdom although it had its own Parliament in Belfast. As in India, independence meant the partition of the country. Ireland became a republic in 1949 and Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom.

Do Northern Irish consider themselves British?

Most people of Protestant background consider themselves British, while a majority of people of Catholic background consider themselves Irish….National Identity by District.

District Down
British 40.2%
Irish 32.2%
Northern Irish 34.1%
English, Scottish or Welsh 1.9%

When did England take over Ireland?

History of Ireland (1169–1536), when England invaded Ireland. History of Ireland (1536–1691), when England conquered Ireland. History of Ireland (1691–1801), the time of the Protestant Ascendency. History of Ireland (1801–1923), when Ireland was merged with the United Kingdom.

Why did England take over Ireland?

From 1536, Henry VIII of England decided to reconquer Ireland and bring it under crown control. Having put down this rebellion, Henry resolved to bring Ireland under English government control so the island would not become a base for future rebellions or foreign invasions of England.

Who ruled Ireland before the British?

The history of Ireland from 1169–1536 covers the period from the arrival of the Cambro-Normans to the reign of Henry II of England, who made his son, Prince John, Lord of Ireland. After the Norman invasions of 1169 and 1171, Ireland was under an alternating level of control from Norman lords and the King of England.

Why do the Irish and British fight?

It began because of the 1916 Easter Rising. The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) men who fought the British soldiers that day wanted Ireland to be its own country and wanted Britain to move its army out of Ireland. The Unionists wanted to stay under control of the British Government.

Did the Irish ever defeat the English?

Although it was crushed after a week of fighting, the Rising and the British response led to greater popular support for Irish independence. In the December 1918 election, republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland….

Irish War of Independence
Irish Republic United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders

What was Bloody Sunday in Ireland?

Bloody Sunday, demonstration in Londonderry (Derry), Northern Ireland, on Sunday, January 30, 1972, by Roman Catholic civil rights supporters that turned violent when British paratroopers opened fire, killing 13 and injuring 14 others (one of the injured later died).

Did Ireland fight in ww2?

Ireland remained neutral during World War II. The Fianna Fáil government’s position was flagged years in advance by Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and had broad support. However, tens of thousands of Irish citizens, who were by law British subjects, fought in the Allied armies against the Nazis, mostly in the British army.