Between us, Girvan and I have probably just confused the
transAtlantic linguistic question. As he points out, "pants"
in the sense of trousers or slacks is American; here in
England (not to mention Scotland), they are
underpants/knickers/panties/whatever.
Kids' slang meaning of "pants" STILL presumably derives from
the embarrassing situation of being caught with your nether
garments down or missing in public, and therefore being in a
very "naff" situation. Personally, I'd rather on balance be
caught with ONLY my jeans down in public. That I could
probably carry off. Beyond that, it gets silly.
(Oh, wicked of me....)
Marianne
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