Earlier today, in writing about the Mets, I used the verb “depants.”
I was curious whether this was the common word for the action, having heard simply “pants” used more frequently of late, but being partial to “depants,” as it makes more logical sense to me (though putting pants on somebody who is not expecting pants to be put on them would be quite funny). So I looked it up.
From Wikipedia:
Pantsing, also known as depantsing, debagging, dacking, flagging…is the pulling down of a person’s trousers or underwear, usually against their wishes, and typically as a practical joke or a form of bullying…The most common method is to sneak up behind the intended victim, grab the trousers at the waist, and apply a quick downward tug before the victim is aware of the assailant’s presence.
So, to answer my question, sounds like both are in use but Wikipedia gives “pantsing” the edge.
Anyway, it goes on:
Pantsing is a common type of prank or bullying in school gym classes. Its most extreme form includes running the trousers up the school flagpole. Some U.S. colleges before World War II were the scenes of large-scale “depantsing” scraps between freshman and sophomore males, often involving more than 2,000 participants. It is also an initiation rite in fraternities and seminaries.
“Its most extreme form includes running the trousers up the school flagpole.”
Wikipedia is the best.
Unfortunately, it turns out depantsing is sometimes not simply a prank, and is instead something perverts do, or a rather extreme form of bullying. Which makes sense. But is still problematic. Don’t depants people.
But to end this on a positive note, check out the “Focus populations” section of the article, which reads as though an anthropologist wrote it:
Pantsing occurs most often in school. Girls may collude with dominant boys in targeting weaker boys, and may also single out certain boys that do not share attributes with the dominant male group without the help or instigation of boys.
