Attaccarsi al tram: From the figurative sense to the proper sense

Abstract

The A. considers the history of the idiomatic expression attaccarsi al tram (‘Eat my shorts!’), whose very common figurative sense is well documented in Google books (from 1956). The proper, etymological sense, derived from the Milanese, is on the contrary less known and is also documented with the motivation in Google books. The A. indicates too the translation into English, French, Spanish and German languages.