From: Ivan Shmakov    
      
   >>>>> "AH" == Ardith Hinton  writes:   
      
   [...]   
      
    AH> For a variety of reasons I unexpectedly found myself alone with   
    AH> this person & both of us were trying to make polite conversation.   
    AH> I don't recall now why I mentioned "pants" ... but I could tell by   
    AH> the look on his face that I'd made a faux pas.  My GAGE CANADIAN   
    AH> DICTIONARY informs me in definition #3 that this word may be used   
    AH> with reference to underwear, but in those days I was working from   
    AH> an earlier edition and (as is fairly typical of native speakers)   
    AH> hadn't looked up the word because I thought I knew & because none   
    AH> of my students seemed to have problems with it.  Where we came from   
    AH> most people would specify "underpants" and/or use a synonym.   
    AH> Meanwhile the only two individuals who might have been able to help   
    AH> out because they'd experienced life on both sides of the ocean were   
    AH> effectively absent.  As soon as I saw his facial expression I knew   
    AH> what was going on in his mind... but he was a schoolteacher too,   
    AH> and we managed to get on the same wave length.  :-)   
      
   	... Well, they say that USA and UK are two countries divided by   
   	the same language.  (Though I guess there are at least two more   
   	countries so divided in fact.)   
      
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