Meaning & Analysis
A flippant way to say something is ‘in my other hose (breeches),’ implying the item or answer is conveniently elsewhere—therefore unavailable.
Insights
Evasive refusal
The phrase dodges a request or claim with jaunty denial—like saying, ‘Not on me,’ or ‘Try another time’—without offering a direct no.
Mocking deflation
It pricks grand declarations (love, promises, debts) by reducing them to a missing trinket supposedly in ‘the other hose,’ turning seriousness into a joke.
Plausible deniability
The speaker hides behind a tidy excuse—if the proof, purse, or token is in the other garment, responsibility slips away for the moment.
Face-saving retreat
Rather than confess lack (of money, sincerity, intention), the line preserves social ease with a comic alibi that keeps tempers cool.
Dress and pockets
In early modern usage, ‘hose’ meant breeches; pockets and small purses were kept there. Claiming the requisite item is ‘in my other hose’ riffs on a common mishap to excuse nonperformance.
Stagecraft and aside
The citations often mark the line as an aside—an actor’s wink to the audience—signaling that the speaker’s public words and private intent diverge, a stock comic strategy in city comedies.
Verbal fencing
The formula turns refusal into repartee. Instead of blunt contradiction, the speaker parries with levity, sustaining social play while blocking the thrust of the request.
Economy and honesty
The quip often covers for empty pockets or empty promises; it is a folk mask for scarcity—of cash, of courage, of commitment—wrapped in swagger.
Portable idiom
By naming a commonplace article of clothing, the phrase became endlessly reusable—any claim can be displaced to the phantom ‘other hose,’ making it a versatile idiom of demurral.
Rhetorical Devices
Irony
The speaker ‘agrees’ to the premise only to deny it with a grin—what’s wanted exists, but conveniently elsewhere.
Euphemism
A light, domestic image softens a refusal; the tidy excuse substitutes for a bald ‘no’ or ‘I can’t.’
Idiom
Fixed phrasing—‘in my t’other hose’—functions as a recognizable catch-all for jokey deflection.
Metonymy
‘Hose’ stands for readiness and means (purse, token, proof), letting a garment carry the weight of capacity or sincerity.
Ellipsis
What’s left unsaid—‘so you’ll get nothing now’—is supplied by the listener, which sharpens the sting while keeping the tone playful.
Transcription
Quotations
I have loued thee long, Silena. —In your tother hose.
I'll play, sir. [aside] But in my t'other hose.
For tho the cast I loose, I ha wonne your loue. —Much: in my tother hoose.
What should I say? [aside] 'Tis in my t'other hose.
But being asked, as I suppose, your answer will be, in your tother hose.
Wee rob'd in Saint Iohn's wood? I' my tother hose!
Cross References
Explanation
[[A mocking or evasive answer, sometimes equivalent to “Not if I know it.”]]
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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