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From: Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: "a Pair of Panties" ?????
Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2024 15:25:52 -0700
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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?

>
>>> Any historic reason?

Nah, happened mostly in the quiet times.

/dps

-- 
You could try being nicer and politer
> instead, and see how that works out.
     -- Katy Jennison