Actually, the contents of drawers has been discussed here.
Either your lady is even more prone to being unconventional than I am, or she lives in a far-removed part of the country. I always hear the term as boxers, and cannot imagine saying " a pair of boxer".

Maths is the usual term in England, and as far as I know other parts of the UK. I would imagine it is in Australia as well. I don't know what they call it in Canada, but math seems to be the word in the US.

Bingley

I am a mathematician, and I have always seen "Department of Mathematics" shortened as "Dept of Maths" (in every English speaking country).
Ciao
Emanuela

Ah, I see. I have always thought that it must be very difficult, and therefore truly wonderful, to get so involved in another culture that you learn all of the little idiosyncrasies of their language.
My hat is off to you brave souls who have done/are attempting that!

Right-o, Bingley. In the U.S. it's "math" (I wouldn't even know how to pronounce "maths" without needing a kleenex)

Bingley said he/she doesn't know what they call it in Canada. Well I live in Canada and I call it math.

apples and oranges, what a wonderful name!
makes me want to eat a piece of fruit, or at least make a cocktail out of one.

>>" a pair of boxer".

this reminds me of the "shopspeak" used by salespeople.
this is when you're looking at a pair of shoes and the staff member sidles up and offers "mmmm yes. they're a lovely shoe."
or with trousers: "they're a trans-seasonal pant".
has anyone else run into this peculiar version of plural or is it just in australia?

annastrophic, how are you with "months"?

Thank you for your question, william. I can usually handle "months" since the "th" is sort of vocalized, unlike its sister phoneme in "maths"... muntz to you.

Anna, how would you pronounce "paths" and "baths" (or even "raths")? If you don't have the Southern British short and long "a" distinction I think they would rhyme with "maths".

Bingley

By the way, what is a trans-seasonal pant? One of tsuwm's sighs lasting into the autumn?

Bingley

Anna, how would you pronounce "paths" and "baths" (or even "raths")? If you don't have the Southern British short
and long "a" distinction I think they would rhyme with "maths".

The example I thought of was "moths" - that has the same sort of soft "th" as "maths."

All right, already. If y'all MUST know, I stay away from all those. I'm on a diet and the doctor told me to avoid consonant clusters.

Following Faldage's mention of an old posting about Math/maths, here's a blast from the archives ....

You might also like "Jackie on drawers"!

Dear Max: Must I?

Re: The one where we taught AnnaS to speak proply

"proply" reminded me of a word I haven't heard for a very long time. I used to keep bees. The bees are very careful not to leave any empty spaces in the hive, in which moths that destroy the wax comb may breed. They leave just enough room for worker bees to get through, and fill up any extra space with a mixture of pine or other resins mixed with wax, called "propolis". Sometimes this causes the sections of the hive or the frames that hold the honeycomb to adhere to each other, making it difficult to remove the honey containing boxes without a frame from section below being removed. This makes the bees very angry, and I used to get a lot of stings this way.

For a URL about bee hives, boxes, frames, etc.

http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/equipment/hive_equip.htm#plans

WELCOME apples+oranges!!

I don't really have anything else to say ... but glad you're here and hope you stay.

Hev