re: Pantyhose And Bra page 2

Did I get your interest up with that subject line? ... or not? one pair of panty/pantyhose/bra? two pairs of panties/pantyhoses/bras?

The bra does not come in a pair. One bra, two bras. A shelf full of bras.

Though 'bras' was originally used as the singular. OED's earliest cite:
1936 W. B. M. Ferguson Somewhere off Borneo i. 26 She wore nothing but a‘bras’, the briefest of French knickers, and the sheerest of white silk hose.

John 'Oxford commas rule' Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

Thus spake Bob Cunningham:

(snip) Well, that's an interesting question. Could they have? Yes, ... to Dr. Cotton. No dictionary named here, but still impressive:

Slow down, Donna; you're hurrying too much.

Slow down, Skippy, you missed the colon, which means that the "here" refers to what comes afterwards, which you snipped.
Simon R. Hughes

we tend to say knickers.

... to all sorts of things ...

Though 'bras' was originally used as the singular. OED's earliest cite: 1936 W. B. M. Ferguson Somewhere off Borneo i. 26 She wore nothing but a ‘bras’, the briefest of French knickers, and the sheerest of white silk hose.

Pronounced "brahz", "brahce", "brazz" or "brass"? Gotta love the OED they tell you the full initials of the author of Somewhere off Borneo but not how the word he used might have been pronounced. There must be lots of people still alive who remember hearing it.

Ross Howard

Now if the pilgrim fathers had taken a dictionary instead of the Holy Bible when they set sail for the ... a "rooster", instructions like "initiate the engine", petrol called "regular gas" and fumble around with ladies chastity belts called "pantyhose".

In what part of the US does anyone "initiate the engine"? If one does, what happens?
I would say that the engine might be initiated into SAE, but to get that joke you'd have to be familiar with both American engineering societies and college fraternities.
What are these "rooster" instructions you're crowing about?

Petrol is called "gasoline" or "gas". There are usually three choices of gasoline at the pump, and the one with the lowest octane rating is called "regular" gas. The other two have various names according to the brand, but the highest octane used to be called "ethyl" or "high test". I don't know what people call the middle grade.

On 11 Dec 2003 12:53:11 GMT, CyberCypher

I don't think it was until a few years after they were introduced, because that's when someone got the bright ... in response to consumer complaints that the pantyhose were too hot and too troublesome to pull down for a quickie.

Uhhh, Frank, Mr Cunningham was engaging in drollery. That was a joke.

Thus spake Bob Cunningham:

Slow down, Skippy, you missed the colon, which means that the "here" refers to what comes afterwards, which you snipped.

If that was what Bob was referring to? Goodness knows there could have been more than one problem.
I try to use "that" and "there" for material that is above the comment, and "this" and "here" for material that is below. But I doubt that everyone does the same, besides the fact that I'm not always consistent.

Best Donna

Tony Cooper wrote on 11 Dec 2003:

Uhhh, Frank, Mr Cunningham was engaging in drollery. That was a joke.

Uhhh, you got it right again, dude. Not bad for someone of your dotage: two outta 200 in the last two days. 1% is better than none. Ya got John Freck beat all to ***, you do.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.

Tony Cooper filted:

Petrol is called "gasoline" or "gas". There are usually three choices of gasoline at the pump, and the one with ... the highest octane used to be called "ethyl" or "high test". I don't know what people call the middle grade.

A compromise..r