We have some soldiers on this board. I dare you the next time you are told to show up for an exercise in your camos to show up in a pair of plaid Bermuda shorts. If you are questioned (unlikely) you can let your CO know that this is a common and well known term for Bermuda shorts. Oh, I forgot… since Bermuda shorts is interchangeable with Daisy Dukes… show up in those. I’m sure the CO will get a big laugh out of it.
p.s. don’t forget to start an “ask the guy in the brig” thread
I didn’t come up with any of it… it’s simply the evolution of language and dialect, naturally. Quite interesting, really, the dynamic nature of language.
I’m pretty sure I’ll regret this, but I believe the problem we’re having is with the specific claim that
In other words, does there exist any reference outside of this thread to “khaki” (or “khakee”) or to “camo” used as a specific identifier for -or even interchangeably with- “short pants,” either hemmed or unhemmed? It appears the universal-outside-of-devilsknew understanding is that “khaki” refers to uniform clothing of a tan color or to a type of casual trouser, and that “camo” is always used to denote clothing made of fabric using a camouflage pattern.
I suppose either term could be used incidentally to refer to shorts if they’re constructed of tan or camouflage fabric, but in the same sort of way one could call a particular SDMB post “farfetched” without intending to classify all SDMB posts under the same rubric.
To recap: you said bermuda shorts were now known as “khakees” and “camos.” You were ridiculed. In support for your preposterous proposition, you cite:
a google search, some of the results for which discuss a Caribbean island ban on khaki colored clothing, often pants, and camouflage clothing, both of which are common for military uniforms. None of the cites I looked over conflate the two. In fact, at least one cite makes the distinction between khaki and camouflage.
a page from a military clothing supplier’s website, which contains the following “Major designers have always adapted khaki and camouflage and other features of military clothing in their designs.” (Emphasis mine). No mention of either of these words being synonymous with Bermuda shorts.
A website that apparently helps the colorblind dress themselves and also calls a pair of long camouflage patterned pants “khakis.”
It’s as if the fact that the words “camo” and “khaki” appear alongside mention of the Caribbean (which has nothing to do with the island nation of Bermuda located pretty much due east of North Carolina) have in your mind lead to the conclusion that bermuda shorts are called camos. Seriously, are you a real person or a computer?
Oh really…
Nobody calls the Bermuda cut of those Camouflage Cargo Khaki Pants, (which were hugely popular a couple of years back) “Camo Khakis” or just “Khakis” or “Camos”? My point is that in the evolution of fashion names or articles of clothing, often the names come and go and are variously modified adjectively or adverbally as quick as the fashions come and go. Daisy Dukes were once called Bermudas in my dialectical memory and lexicon.
Bermuda Shorts were originally modelled after British Military Cargo Khakis, so it seems we have come full circle. Now they just use camo sometimes, too.
Well, all we can say is that you live in an oddball linguistic isolate that apparently has a unique fashion vocabulary. I mean, people call bermudas “khakis” where you live and they called Daisy Dukes “Bermudas?” That’s got to be a highly regionalized usage.