大門 in English

[Kenny同志]

大門 is a humourous, euphemistic term used to refer to the zip on the part of your trousers that covers your abdomen. So if you don’t know this you may be confused when people start giggling when someone says 某人忘了關大門.

What’s the word for it in English?

[fanglu]

Fly

[Kenny同志]

Excellent! Thanks Fanglu!

[Kenny同志]

Hmm, is the English word humourous, euphemistic, too?

[陳德聰]

In English it's not so much the word that is humourous, but the circumstance itself.

People have told me that I am "flying low", meaning my fly is undone, and several other often amusing things like "your hangar door is open", "when you leave home don't forget to close the garage door", "the snake's out of the cage", etc.

I don't think any of those are by any means widely recognized ways of telling people to zip up their fly though, so I prefer to be more straight forward and just say "your fly is undone".

[Kenny同志]

Thank you, 陳德聰. Your comment is very useful.

[anonymoose]

What is the difference between 大门 and 校门?

[imron]

People have told me that I am "flying low", meaning my fly is undone

This is reasonably common I think, as far as such terms are common.

[li3wei1]

In the UK, they often refer to it as 'flies', and it's definitely plural, as in 'your flies are undone'. And it seems to refer to buttons more than zippers, as I think I remember people making the distinction.

[tooironic]

On a side note, I've also heard "fly" referred to as 裤门儿. Different dialects have different words for it.

[Demonic_Duck]

I agree with li3wei1, in British English, we say "flies" (plural). But I'm pretty sure this can refer to a zip opening as well as a button one.

[imron]

I agree with li3wei1, in British English, we say "flies" (plural).

Where is the humour in this?

[Kenny同志]

Thanks everybody for your comments.

in British English, we say "flies" (plural). But I'm pretty sure this can refer to a zip opening as well as a button one.

大門 can refer to a button opening as well.

What is the difference between 大门 and 校门?

校門 is the gate at one of the main entrances of a school, college, or university, be it large or not. You can also call the gate in the picture a 大門.

大門 can be a gate, or a large door, which usually leads to a large room. Of course, it is sometimes flies.

[Guest realmayo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_%28clothing%29

(Maybe it's time to bring back the codpiece.)

[anonymoose]

校門 is the gate at one of the main entrances of a school, college, or university, be it large or not. You can also call the gate in the picture a 大門.

I know that, but doesn't it also mean "flies"? At least, I only knew 校门 until you brought up this thread on 大门.

[Kenny同志]

I know that, but doesn't it also mean "flies"?

I don't think so.

[anonymoose]

Some people think it does: here.

[muirm]

To subtly indicate someone's fly is down, I have always used "xyz", which stands for "eXamine Your Zipper". It could be a regional expression, though - I'm not sure.

the part of your trousers that covers your abdomen

Abdomen is your stomach/belly area, so I think "crotch" is more appropriate here (unless you wear your pants really high).

[lingo-ling]

in British English, we say "flies" (plural). But I'm pretty sure this can refer to a zip opening as well as a button one.

Ah, childhood mystery solved! Thank you!

I remember being a kid and swearing up and down that it was a plural word, after being "corrected" to "fly" and seeing it as "fly" ever since, and still thinking it's unnatural sounding. (I'm American but spent part of my formative years in the UK. I also think my father, himself American, used the plural.)

[skylee]

In HK, we say 火車未到站. "忘了關大門" is new to me.