On Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 03:30:39PM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote: > On Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 03:21:54PM -0400, Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside > wrote: > > On 2021-07-25 11:13 a.m., Brian wrote: > > > Belt and braces? We see you believe in it. :) > > What do you mean by this ? > > Belt and braces ?? > > "Braces" is a British term for suspenders. The American version of > this would be "belt and suspenders". > > If you're not familiar with *either* of these, it means "having > redundancy". Wearing both a belt and a set of suspenders gives you > two ways to prevent your pants from falling down. Both have to fail > before your pants fall down. >
Be careful: three countries divided by a common language here [.ca, .us and .uk :) ] Belt and braces == British english for two ways to keep your trousers up. [Braces == US/CA "suspenders" == webbing/elastic that goes from the trouser top over the shoulders to the trouser top and clips to this.] "Suspenders" in UK are used with old fashioned silk stockings and a garter belt or similar: small clips to hook the stockings to. The sort of thing you might see in a burlesque show, maybe, or for a fancy dress party. Pants in UK == undergarments (men's underpants, normally). So yes, belt and braces is redundancy: when my braces broke as I was in church getting married, my suit trousers didn't have belt loops - so I had some difficulties :) If this is hard: at least we've not got into orthography - how do you spell tires/tyres - in British English, we can't understand why someone would write a verb for the plural noun ... ] All best, as ever, Andy Cater.
