What are the origins of the phrase "Light in the loafers"?
964315
Yes, I've heard that phrase used to indicate that a man is gay.  I guess it refers to the habit of some guys, like Richard Simmons for example, to prance and dance around.  I like Richard Simmons, he's cool.
120738
I believe it originated around gangsters of the 20s who wanted a word to act tough with when asking for money such as "Gimme yer dough!!" or "Frankie, don't forget the dough or Patty will be mad" It was just the slang of the time, but sort of lingered till present day
33399
A made up term for the plastic coating on the end of your shoe laces.  From the movie Cocktail.
1048794
[Q] From Mike Willis: “I’m trying to find out the origin of the phrase, on the QT, meaning off the record or in confidence.”\n\n[A] According to Robert Hendrickson, in The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, the first reference is from a British ballad of 1870, which contained the line “Whatever I tell you is on the QT”. It seems to have been just an abbreviated spelling, using the first and last letters of the word quiet, the mild obfuscation also suggesting a meaning for the expression. The Oxford English Dictionary has a first sighting from 1884: “It will be possible to have one spree on the strict q.t.”. Mr Hendrickson points out that it also occurs in a famous London ditty of 1891, sung by Lottie Collins, which also introduced the famous chorus line “Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay”:\n\n    A sweet Tuxedo girl you see,\n    Queen of swell society,\n    Fond of fun as fun can be,\n    When it's on the strict Q.T.
89653
My dad use to say that sometimes when I was going out on a date.  "Going to watch the submarine races?" It would be nice to know the origin of that.  All I could think of was making out.
1166357
1. It is an abbriviation from the 19th century that was used in some writing, like magazines, meaning 'All Correct,' the joke being that  neither are correct.  Also came to prominence during the Martin Van Buren run for the presidency.\n\n2. to take action, to execute
1136480
It is used now in many places. In songs and everywhere. I think that this line came from a "tall dark handsome stranger".\n"tall dark handsome stranger" came from language\nlanguage came from man\nman came from God\nSo ultimately God made this line = "tall dark handsome stranger".
793676
Sorry you've had such rubbish answers. \n\nI'm usually quite good at this sort of thing, but I'm afraid I can't find any info on the origins of this phrase.\n\nI hope someone more knowledgeable answers you soon!
554112
Well, you seem pretty LIGHT in the LOAFERS, you know?\n\nOther than that.....  I don't follow.\n\nMaybe you have gender identity issues....
973340
I've always thought it meant "very common,inexpensive and or plentiful".  \nFor example:  In the summertime sunglasses are a dime a dozen.  \nMeaning: they are in every store and you can get them cheap because it's summer.
543483
That sounds like the story I heard about the origin of that phrase.  Also, they hired people to stay up all night and stand by with shovels in case the bell rang. That is the origin of the term "graveyard shift" for people who work nights.
1142206
Eric Partridge lists it in his 'Dictionary of Slang', 1937. He gives it the meaning 'all will be well', which is not quite how it is used now. Partridge states it as dating from circa 1890, although he presents no evidence for that. Also he suggests that it may be derived from the phrase 'all is bob', which meant 'all is well'.\n\nAnother interpretation is that it derives from the supposed nepotism of Lord Salisbury. Piers Brendon, in Eminent Edwardians, 1979, writes:\n\n"... in 1887, Balfour was unexpectedly promoted to the vital front line post of Chief Secretary for Ireland by his uncle Robert, Lord Salisbury."\n\nVarious authors have surmised that having an uncle Bob who was Prime Minister became synonymous with having a passport to an easy life.
1005562
Savate\n\n"According to Michel Delahaye, in his book La Boxe Française, Ergo Press, April 1989, the French style of fighting with the hands and feet, known as Boxe Francaise (French Boxing), was assimilated by Charles Lecour (1808 - 94), the son of a French baker, in 1832. Prior to that time, a method of fighting existed in old Paris where the combatants kicked one another with their everyday shoes on. The common name for a street shoe at that time was "savate" (pronounced sa-vat), which simply meant 'old shoe'. The name savate, therefore, became associated with this particular method of street-fighting.\n\nThose early street brawls did not stop at kicking however, as gouging, wrestling and headbutting are also said to have taken place (just like in England today!). The first person to make an attempt to systematise savate was Michel Casseux (aka) Pisseux (1794 - 1869), who opened the first 'official' Salle (training establishment) in 1825. Unfortunately, savate was still recognised by many as a style of street-fighting, and therefore, initially only attracted those of dubious means and character."
790658
Since you already have some real answers, I can't resist.\n\n"Turn off the light when you leave the room!"\n\n -- My dad
776806
I think it is an Australian term and has something to do with the silks (or colours).\n\nFound this for you.... (it is not the colours)\nROLLING ALONG: Just why are jockeys called hoops? "Hayes hoops cop a hiding", said yesterday's The Sunday Age over Saturday suspensions of Craig Williams and Dwayne Dunn. According to Alec Selman, the former stipendiary steward, an example of it was seen in Melbourne recently when the Irish jockeys were competing there. "One had a fall and rolled along the ground [like a hoop]," he pointed out. The jockey remained motionless, a point all once followed until attended by the ambulance men. "The term originated from the National Hunt racing in Great Britain," Selman added.
70864
The idiom makes sense when you consider the meaning of sunshine. \n\nEven if you take it literally to mean walking on the ground that the sun is shining on, it's not necessarily too hot, with or without shoes.\n\nThese are different definitions of sunshine:\nThe light or the direct rays from the sun. \nThe warmth given by the sun's rays. \nA location or surface on which the sun's rays fall. \nRadiant cheerfulness; geniality. \nA source of cheerfulness.
730419
Probably 2.\n\nMIND YOUR PS AND QS\n\nA puzzling and quirky idiom\n\nThere has recently been a discussion on the Usenet newsgroup alt.usage.english about this somewhat outdated saying. As so often happens, a series of posters have recounted the explanations they’ve heard about its origins without really advancing the discussion. It would be difficult to reach a conclusion in any case, as the facts to base it on have been lost. All we can do is theorise, which can be fun, but it does tend to generate more heat than light. Here, for what its worth, are the facts so far as I know them.\n\nIts meaning in recent times—and the one I learned as a child in west London nearly 50 years ago—has been “to mind one’s manners”, “to behave properly”. This is a weakened sense to the one it had in the nineteenth century, when it meant, according to Eric Partridge in A Dictionary of Historical Slang: “to be careful, exact, or prudent in behaviour”.\n\nThese are some of the explanations I’ve seen advanced in various places:\n\n    * Advice to a child learning its letters to be careful not to mix up the handwritten lower-case letters p and q.\n    * Similar advice to a printer’s apprentice, for whom the backward-facing metal type letters would be especially confusing.\n    * Jocular, or perhaps deadly serious, advice to a barman not to confuse the letters p and q on the tally slate, on which the letters stood for the pints and quarts consumed “on tick” by the patrons.\n    * An abbreviation of mind your please’s and thank-you’s.\n    * Instructions from a French dancing master to be sure to perform the dance figures pieds and queues accurately.\n    * An admonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with their tarred queues, that is, their pigtails.\n\nIt is possible to put forward objections to all of these. Why should p and q be singled out for attention in handwriting, when similar problems occur with b and d? This comment might be thought to apply with even greater force to the poor printer’s apprentice. The pints and quarts explanation sounds reasonable, provided that men in bars used to drink beer by the quart, as in fact they did. The French dancing-master explanation sounds just too far-fetched to be credible, as does the one about the seamen. The mind your please’s and thank-you’s seems just as unlikely as the others, but is seriously advanced by some dictionaries, the current edition of the Collins English Dictionary among them.\n\nThere are two similar usages recorded:\n\n    * There was once an expression P and Q, often written pee and kew, which was a seventeenth-century colloquial expression for “prime quality”. This later became a dialect expression (the English Dialect Dictionary reports it in Victorian times from Shropshire and Herefordshire). OED2 has a citation from Rowlands’ Knave of Harts of 1612:\n    * “Bring in a quart of Maligo, right true: And looke, you Rogue, that it be Pee and Kew.” Nobody is really sure what either P or Q stood for. To say they’re the initials of “Prime Quality” seems to be folk etymology, because surely that would make “PQ” rather than “P and Q”. Partridge says that the phrase learn your Ps and Qs, was common about 1820, again being advice to children who may be confused about the two letters.\n\nYou may feel the first of these tends to confuse the issue rather than illuminate it, and you may be right. It may just be coincidence. However, the second does tend to support the idea that it relates to children learning their alphabets. If I had to make a choice, I’d plump for the alphabet-learning origin.\n\nWhat we do know is that mind your Ps and Qs was first recorded in 1779 but that it is slowly dying out. To lose it would be a pity, as it is a link to the past and makes a good subject for some quiet speculation and ingenious attempts at explanation. In common with so many words and phrases in English, its origins must remain