I remember the saying “too big for your britches” when I was a kid.
Typically it was in the context of being precocious, or even conceited.
However, I never knew it was a southern expression.
Of course, what kid realizes many of their habits and tendencies are all wrapped up in culture, and geography, and nationality?
The expectation of returning home regularly may transcend culture though – if you think about it.
Some think Davy Crockett was the first to use the term.
“For starters, a remarkable stigma attached to people who left the hills of Kentucky for a better life. Hillbillies have a phrase—“ too big for your britches”—to describe those who think they’re better than the stock they came from. For a long time after my grandparents came to Ohio, they heard exactly that phrase from people back home. The sense that they had abandoned their families was acute, and it was expected that, whatever their responsibilities, they would return home regularly.”
-J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy (Amazon)
