# Going commando

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-commando/8153>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 5, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-commando/8153 "2000-03-05T23:32:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-commando/8153/1 "2000-03-05T23:32:00Z")

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While reading an article about Jennifer Lopez’s Grammy Award show dress, the phrase “going commando” was used. I’ve seen it a couple of other times, and it seems from the context that it means when a woman is not wearing panties and/or underwear.

My question is how did this expression arise? My best WAG is that it implies the woman is, like a commando, ready for immediate action. But this etymology seems fairly indirect as well as pretty crude for a family magazine.

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**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-commando/8153/2 "2000-03-05T23:51:00Z")

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I’ve heard that Navy SEALs don’t wear underwear, since they are always either soaked with seawater or sweating a lot. Underwear doesn’t help with either…

I don’t know about other kinds of commandos, but it stands to reason that they are also either boiling hot or soaked with water a lot of the time.

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**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-commando/8153/3 "2000-03-06T01:38:00Z")

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I’ve only come across this expression once (on an episode of _Friends_). In that context it was used to decribe any male as well as any female not wearing underwear.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2000, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-commando/8153/4 "2000-03-06T04:38:00Z")

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I’ve always interpreted it as

1. Doing without the unnecessary niceties of normal society.  
OR
2. Specifically going without underwear.

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Sue from El Paso

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.