Talk:tight as Dick's hatband

The most likely origin refers to a comparison to the tight fitting foreskin on a penis which can, on occasion, become too tight. 'the origin can most likely be traced to the early part of the 20th century when hats were a normal part of every man's clothing. It likely emerged at the same time as "keep it under your hat" a phrase that would subtly tell a man his erection was showing. As well as "something to hang your hat on" referred to a significant male appendage.Sojourn1950 (talk) 02:57, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

RFM discussion: March 2020–November 2022
A look at e.g. shows that this is often used without the "as", and [//books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=tight+as+Dick%27s+hatband%2Cas+tight+as+Dick%27s+hatband%2C&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctight%20as%20Dick%20%27s%20hatband%3B%2Cc0 Ngrams] suggests the form with "as" is even too much less common to plot. Various other sites that are concerned with phrases like this seem to be divided, some including the "as" and some dropping it. - -sche (discuss) 09:51, 4 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Moved to be in line with all English similes