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From: wugi <wugi@brol.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: "a Pair of Panties" ?????
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2024 19:03:35 +0200
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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).
Others like Dutch have none of it in plural or "dual".
Any historic reason?

-- 
guido wugi