| Deutsch English Français Italiano |
|
<lesdbjF9q5vU1@mid.individual.net> View for Bookmarking (what is this?) Look up another Usenet article |
Path: ...!npeer.as286.net!npeer-ng0.as286.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Athel Cornish-Bowden <me@yahoo.com> Newsgroups: sci.lang Subject: Re: "a Pair of Panties" ????? Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2024 10:25:23 +0200 Lines: 56 Message-ID: <lesdbjF9q5vU1@mid.individual.net> References: <v5t8mv$tk1f$1@dont-email.me> <v5tgf1$ukmm$1@dont-email.me> <v66kl9$2rfe4$1@dont-email.me> <mn.2b9d7e876d2bccb9.127094@snitoo> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net /RnTWonB31egTXwHB4tTwQoj4Op94Wru3TW4AvFll993Xlz5BL Cancel-Lock: sha1:cz2olnYkcyh/+hEjhFLUYotOrI4= sha256:TjtekFYmT0aL7eulKxjFi9D6wy3UIQGtEvVmsk/HUN0= User-Agent: Unison/2.2 Bytes: 2670 On 2024-07-05 22:25:52 +0000, Snidely said: > On Friday or thereabouts, wugi asked ... >> Op 4/07/2024 om 19:09 schreef Athel Cornish-Bowden: >>> On 2024-07-04 17:03:35 +0000, wugi said: >>> >>>> Op 1/07/2024 om 7:56 schreef Hibou: >>>>> Le 01/07/2024 à 04:44, HenHanna a écrit : >>>>>> >>>>>> A pair of pants, or A pair of trousers >>>>>> >>>>>> ... ok because each Pair kinda looks like [2 pipes]. >>>>>> >>>>>> ...but... >>>>>> "a Pair of Panties" ????? >>>>> >>>>> There appears to be a class of things that exist only in the plural - a >>>>> pair of tweezers, scissors, pliers, sunglasses... trousers, underpants, >>>>> knickers, tights... - things that bifurcate or are made up of two bits. >>>>> I suppose the briefer garments inherited the plural from longer ones >>>>> (though a few minutes' searching yields no support for this; briefs >>>>> were apparently in use in Ancient Egypt). >>>> >>>> [...] >>>> >>>> Why does English name all these things as pairs, being a single object? >>>> Others like French have a few (lunettes, ciseaux). >>> >>> But pantalon is singular, though the English word derived from it, >>> pantaloons,is plural. >> >> Not an explanation, but it seems like a demonstration of how English >> likes to see things in "double" ;-) >> >>>> Others like Dutch have none of it in plural or "dual". >> >> Even twins are just one "tweeling". > > What is term for each individual twin? In the case of my twin grandchildren (not identical, and of opposite sexes) it would be "twin". "She is a twin", "She has a twin brother", etc. > >> >>>> Any historic reason? > > Nah, happened mostly in the quiet times. > > /dps -- Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly in England until 1987.