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From: wugi <wugi@brol.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: "a Pair of Panties" ?????
Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2024 17:37:45 +0200
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Op 6/07/2024 om 12:30 schreef Ruud Harmsen:
> Fri, 05 Jul 2024 15:25:52 -0700: Snidely <snidely.too@gmail.com>
> scribeva:
> 
>> 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?
> 
> Eén van een tweeling, one of the twins.

Also "de helft van een tweeling" (;

-- 
guido wugi