Who’s the Monty of ‘The Full Monty’?

As the story goes, people started calling it “the full monty,” and the meaning of the phrase broadened beyond breakfast after the war. : 101 Questions About the English Language, author Susie Dent recounts another version: that Burton “was said to offer both a two-piece suit as the standard and also a waistcoat and spare pair of trousers for an additional cost.” The latter got nicknamed “the full monty.” But Dent also stresses that the theory “is by no means proven beyond doubt.” It’s believed to derive from monte, the name of a Spanish card game involving gambling; so perhaps the full monty originally referred to the pot in such a game (i.e., the total money all players have bet).

Author: Ellen Gutoskey

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