Why is it “a pair” of pants, when it’s one article of clothing.
Were pants legs ever separate pieces of clothing?
Do other languages refer to trousers as “a pair” or “two,” or is it singular?
Why is it “a pair” of pants, when it’s one article of clothing.
Were pants legs ever separate pieces of clothing?
Do other languages refer to trousers as “a pair” or “two,” or is it singular?
Archive…
Why do we say a “pair of pants” when there’s only one of them?
URL: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_249b.html
How embarrassing. I searched only GQ, not the archives.
Nevermind. . . .
whenever two items which resemble each other are needed to make an operational unit they are a “pair”,
The left side of a pair of pants is is not exactly like the right side-----the same applies to scissors----or shears------or pliers.
If you made a pair of pants using only two right sides you’d have a pocket where the fly is and a fly on one hip.
Or the fly would be in the rear and one pocket backwards.
At any rate they’d sure look funny!
As for a “pair of dice”—incorrect------but common usage.
What’s the deal with pants, you ask? If you ever figure it out, let me know, cause I don’t have a clue what the deal with me is.
Ezstrete: And a pair of glasses?
That makes sense, Ezstrete, but also begs the question:
why “a” bra?
When you are making love and you pant, and then you pant again, that’s a “pair of pants”.
Why is a “pair of dice” incorrect?
I suspect s/he meant “a dice” is incorrect? Dice certainly is the plural of die (as in the expression the die is cast), but most of us use dice as the singular even though that’s not strictly correct.
In German, both pants and glasses are singular. I’m not sure about other languages, but I think that English is the illogical one in this case.
If you rotate your glasses 180 degrees you’ll find that there is definitely a left and a right lens
So----Spectacles require two corrections to make up a pair.
As for"A BRA"?
Ask the French-----they customarily throw away half the letters in their words when they pronounce them.
They do it to confuse we Irish-Americans.
in regards to the bra, my understanding is that the modern bra derives it’s name from the brassiere. The brassiere clearly is not a pair of anything.
I believe that in Spanish “el pantalon” would technically be “pants” in English, but I’ve never heard it like that. I usually hear “Los pantalones”. Maybe it is very Americanized I don’t know.
I’m glad you’re clear on it, because I’m not.
Two cloth cups that lift and support.
In German (as in Swedish) both trousers and glasses are plural: Hosen and Brillen respectively.
i have several pairs of trousers…and underpants
but no undertrousers.
i think at one time the legs would have been separate…so a pair would be correct.
a bit like chaps…fella’s
Ich think lindsay.reid meant that a pair of trousers/pants translates to “eine Hose” in German which is singular, same applies for a pair of glasses = Eine Brille. I can’t speak for swedish though.
Anyway, you English-speaking crowd shouldn’t feel alone. In Finnish housut and silmä(lasit) is also plural, while only meaning one object.
What? Americans, maybe, but the Irish throw away quite a lot of letters as well. Anyway, thanks for reminding me of my long ago trip to Ireland and my embarrassing attempts at asking for directions to Dun Laoghaire. [sub](Hell, I couldn’t even get the locals to understand my pronunciation of Howth.)[/sub]
What is the deal with pants? 2 for 1.
everton said:
But that doesn’t match what Cecil said - “The terms for these objects are always plural in form…” Dice is the plural, is is pants, and shears, and scissors, etc. Dice would be the correct word in the form, since it is the plural.
Ezstrete actually said:
Dice do not require both to be an operational unit. Each die will work fine on its own. What Ezstrete seems to be saying is that “pair” requires the two to be connected in some manner. Pants, scissors, shears, eyeglasses, tweezers, etc all have two parts that are joined in some manner. Dice are not joined. Even stairs and rosary beads are joined, though they are not typically in twos.
But what about shoes and socks? They aren’t joined and remain separate items, but most people require one of each side to use them properly. Thus one left foot and one right foot per pair.
Somewhere along the line, pair shifted usage from coupled items making a whole to just two. In that context, “pair of dice” is correct.
Regarding brassiere, my dictionary says it comes from brace. Looking up brace, I see one definition is pair, couple. But I think the more relevant definition is clasp, clamp, thong; strap. There’s a note that says some senses depend upon a second entry for brace, which is embrace; encircle or gird. So a brassiere is a strap that encircles or girds. Since it has more to do with the strapping part that encircles the chest and less to do with the cupping part that requires two units, the word is singular and does not fall into the pair category. Despite all evidence to the contrary, a brassiere is not about the coupling.
mrcrow, regarding undertrousers vs. underpants, that is the whims of word history. Pants is used in the U.S. to mean trousers, but in the U.K. it chiefly means drawers, or underpants. Pants is really a shortened form of pantaloons, which referred to a type of tight fitting trousers that likely resembled drawers, which were a tight-fitting undergarment for the legs suspended from the waist (think long underwear). Americans call them underpants to differentiate them from their use of pants for the outer leg garment.