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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

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