A brassiere is a form of a waistcoat with a stiffening matterial (generally whalebone) that is designed to support the breasts from below. When the modern bra was developed in 1913 it cannibalized the name because the new device served a similar function.
The brassiere however is very different in appearance from the bra. It looks much like a corset and as such probably derives it’s language usage in the same manner as the jacket. (eg. we don’t have a pair of jackets)
I’ve read that back to myself five times and I still don’t understand it. Are you suggesting that Cecil doesn’t accept the word “die” as meaning a single dice or that people don’t commonly use “dice” to mean only one of them?
I don’t know. I’m not buying it yet. Are you saying that a “pair of gloves”, a “pair of earrings”, a “pair of swords”, and a “pair of eyes” all used to be incorrect? Or as Ezstrete puts it, they are “incorrect, but common usage”?
Gloves, earrings, and eyes all come in twos, and you need both to have a complete set (ok, with modern styles, earrings can be worn separately, but you wouldn’t refer to two of those as a pair). The same is true of swords, if they’re matched dueling swords (and I’ve never heard of a “pair of swords” in any other context).
)