![]() ![]() Napoleon himself would have wilted if he had found himself in the midst of a trio of females, one talking baby-talk, another fussing about his health, and the third making derogatory observations on his lower limbs. I was standing quite near to Vincent Jopp, and at this moment I saw a bead of perspiration spring out on his forehead, and into his steely eyes there came a positively hunted look. Luella Mainprice Jopp, addressing the animal in her arms, "because he was his muzzer's pet, he was." "Little Tinky-Ting don't need no liver-pad, he don't," said Mrs. Agnes Parsons Jopp, "but when he foolishly comes out in quite a strong east wind without his liver-pad-" "I don't object to the knickerbockers," said Mrs. "What practical joker ever lured you into appearing in public in knickerbockers?" Nature, in bestowing upon him a massive head and a jutting chin, had forgotten to finish him off at the other end. It was not my place to try to dissuade him, but there was no doubt that they did not suit him. Even the strongest and most silent of us have our weaknesses, and my employer's was the rooted idea that he looked well in knickerbockers. Wodehouse, "The Clicking of Cuthbert", 1922: Did the nassy man frighten my precious Pershing?"Īlthough this extended baby-talk is sometimes used by men, it often seems to have been perceived as feminine and somewhat aggressive, even (mock-) frighteningly so. Pottle, emerging from the living room and catching the object up in her arms. "Isn't he a love? isn't he just too sweet," cried Mrs. 76 ‘Hello, sweetie-pie,’ said Miss Molloy.ġ922 Richard Edward Connell "Mr. The OED's first citation for "sweetie-pie" isġ928 P. The "_-y p_" pattern seems to show up in print for the first time in the 1920s, usually in cases where baby-talk has been extended to talk with romantic partners or small pets. The "_-y pants" coinages are a kind of baby talk, related to "_-y pie" and "_-y poo" and so on, where by "baby talk" I mean the kind of language that mothers and other caregivers stereotypically use in addressing babies. In the end, I don't have a lot to add that's not obvious. I'll get back to you later if I can find anything useful. I've got a working hypothesis about the milieu this came out of, but I'm not sure that it's right. Note the parallel use of "smoothy pie" in this lyric. Obviously the "smarty pants" usage already existed in 1939. How'd you learn to say the things you say In the moonlight you really know what to do. Music by Walter Donaldson, Lyrics by Johnny MercerĪt the races your horses come in one-two The easiest part of this to answer is why things might have changed around 1940: So in keeping with my general practice, I'll post the rest of our Q&A. Dweck's deadline had intervened (" How Did Tina Fey’s Pants Get So Bossy?", Slate ). I sent a quick answer, and a day later, sent a bit more. Do you have any theories as to why people started adding "pants" to words, and why the practice rose so precipitously in the latter half of the 20th century? Often the terms are paired with an honorific for comedic effect (e.g. In the OED, it looks like "fancy pants" came first, followed by "smarty pants." Using Google's n-gram (an admittedly imperfect tool), it looks like the use of "fancy pants" and "smarty pants" really took off around the year 1940. So we were curious how people started adding "pants" to different words. In the last few months there have been a couple of books out with "pants" in the title (Bossypants, Mr. A couple of days ago, Jessica Dweck wrote me with a question:
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