Do you want to enjoy every single saying or phrasein an article, a chapter of a book, all sorts of scripts?Do you want to resolve a friendly argument over whata saying or phrase actually means, when it can beused and how it originated? Or do you simply enjoysayings, phrases, or words?

If yes, then you'll probably be interested in thiscolumn which is meant to become interactive. You areinvited to e-mail to us your questions about themeaning and origin of sayings or phrases that you areinterested in.

For a start, the phrase "The Full Monty" was the titleof the eponymous 1997 film. A blockbuster worldwide.In Greece too.

The release of the film, sparked off the demand for

a)explaining what it means and

b)where the phrase came from.

The former is easy to answer: It means "the wholething, everything, the whole lot".

The second question is difficult to answer definitely.

It seems that there are almost as many explanationsas there are writers doing the explaining. Thedictionaries department at the Oxford University Pressprovides a number of different stories for thisexpression entry.

However the most repeated derivation is from thetailoring business of Sir Montague (Monty) Burton.Burton opened his first shop in Chesterfield in 1904. Asthe business flourished he opened a chain of shops in1906. By 1913 he had his headquarters in Sheffieldwhere the film "The Full Monty" was set. The firmbecame huge, with more than 500 shops by 1929, andmade a quarter of the British Uniforms in the SecondWorld War. The full monty would be a three-piece suit,with the waistcoat included, not just coat and trousers.Customers often asked for the full monty by name,when they wanted to place an order for the "wholething". Burton's name became well known as well asthe phrase "the full monty" which came to mean "thewhole thing", "complete", at around 1985.

People who have known the business prefer theMontague Burton origin. They argue that the firm usedto offer a two- piece suit as the basic option. By payingan extra sum of money you could have a waistcoatplus a spare pair of trousers. That meant that youwould go for the Full Monty.

A few words about the film.

"The full Monty" is a 1997 Academy Award-winningBritish Comedy Film. It is about six unemployed steel

workers who, living in Sheffield "the beating heart ofBritain's industrial north in the early 70's" findthemselves unemployed a quarter of century later.Being in dire straits they decide to perform a stripteasein front of 200 women , to do the "full monty" strip,meaning to strip all the way, hence the film's title. Theirmotive is to make money. Gaz, one of the heroes,desperately wants to earn some money to pay for hischild support obligations. Ôhis would allow him to seehis son. Despite being a comedy, the film touches onhot issues, like the effects of economic recession on acountry, the contribution of unemployment toincreasing divorce rates, father's rights and relations,depression, frustration, attempted suicide,forgiveness, behavior or jokes that go too far. The filminspired a 2000 Broadway musical of the same nameafter having americanised characters and setting.

The film features British slang, informal English,insulting and more particularly the slang of Sheffield.

e.g.

"Ta" for "Thank you".

"nutter" for "crazy person/idiot" (ðáëáâéÜñçò)

"bugger" for "smb annoying or unpleasant" (ëå÷ñßôçò)

"t','" for definite article "the"

"jennel" for "alley"

"thang" for "thing"

"mug" for "stupid" (êïñüúäï)

"nifty" for "practical, handy" (ðñáêôéêüò)

"kit off" for "take your clothes off"

"caper" for "illegal/dangerous activity" (êáôåñãáñéÜ,ôóáëßìé)

Watch the film and find more…..

I would suggest you get the DVD, from your nearestDVD club and play it with English subtitles. This willhelp you to identify more slang or simply informal,everyday English.

I wish you enjoy viewing!

Your comments are more than welcome! They willcertainly see the light of the day!

AND YOY'LL RELISH "ISSUES" SPOTLIGHTS!

Sources:

The Oxford English Dictionary

Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia

www.worldwidewords.org

www.phrases.org.uk

9ISSUES Vol. 19, September 2007

Modern English in actionEnhancing our everyday English!

Contributed by Dr Angeliki Deligiannideligian@enl.auth.gr