Deadlier (not more deadly) than the male & Full Monty
Posted by Bruce Kahl on November 30, 2001
In Reply to: Deadlier (not more deadly) than the male & Full Monty posted by Gary Martin on November 30, 2001
: : Despite the tyranny of constant (mis)usage seemingly deciding English grammar, adjectives ending in -ly form the comparative by adding -ier.
: : Full Monty - I assumed or deduced that as this is about male strippers taking it all off, that the monty part derived from Monty Python, python being a kind of snake and a certain part of the male anatomy resembling ... You get my drift.
: That's said rather pedantically. Even more pedantically (and if that should be pedanticlier I want to end it all) I'd say that "more deadly than the male" is a line from Kipling's poem 'The Female of the Species". Deadlier might be better grammar but it would be a misquote.
: The Full Monty origin hasn't to do with the film or with Monty Python; it was in use before both, although no one has found the true origin yet.
: Gary
The full monty: n British
All
that is desired and/or required. The previously obscure phrase suddenly became
extremely popular in 1990 and 1991 and many derivations were proposed, ranging
from a nickname given to inhabitants of the Potteries region of England to a comment
on the quality of the wartime briefings given by the British General Montgomery
in North Africa. In fact, the most likely explanation of the phrase is that it
is a piece of gamblers' jargon meaning the entire kitty or necessary 'pot' to
be bet, from the Spanish monte (mountain). In the US 'monte' was adopted as the
name of a risky card game, while in Australian horseracing circles 'monty' used
to mean an accurate tip or certain bet.
'We had starters, main course, wine,
you name it--the full monty...'.
(Recorded, financial consultant, London, (May
1993)).
Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, © Tony Thorne 1997