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This is the Keep Your English Up to Date podcast from BBClearning English.com.

In this week's programme, John Aetto explores the origin meaning and use of the phrase go commando.

Linguists talk of lexical gaps, concepts or things that don't have a particular word or

phrase with which we can refer to them. Now here's a concept to conjure with.

To go about in public fully clothed as far as your outer clothing is concerned,

but without any underpants. You might not find it surprising

that until quite recently English had no single expression to refer to this curious practice. But now it has two. One is

free-balling and the other which in the last few years has become quite widely known

is Go Commander. This seems to have originated, perhaps

as early as the 1970s, as a slang term on American college campuses.

But the reasons behind it remain mysterious.

Now, commandos are soldiers who go on surprise raids into enemy territory, and some have claimed there

may be a practical explanation for their phrase.

Perhaps that Commandos find that underpants are uncomfortable and restrict their movement,

or even waste too much time to take off if they suddenly need to go to the toilet.

Or is it more symbolic that strong brave active men, as we suppose command owes to be,

don't wear underpants?

We'll probably never know for sure, but it's comforting that such a glaring gap in English

...