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women wear a pair of panties but only one bra.
🤯
Trousers are plural because originally they were only a pair of legs (without anything between!) and were tied to a belt.
EDIT: Originally Celtic, "Brax" or latinized "Bracae", IIRC.
You can't wear one leg each from two different pairs of jeans and go about your daily business.
Well not with that attitude you can't! I can think of several ways to accomplish this
😂
For some items like glasses it's very clear why they are pairs; if you can have a reading glass (which is an antiquated way to refer to a handheld magnifying lens, for example) then you can certainly have a pair of reading glasses because it's the two pieces of glass which are plural.
For trousers there are no certain answers, but I'd suggest it's very much with with how we conceptualise their function. For 90% of their height trousers are split and cover the legs, of which we have two, only joining right at the top.
For shirts you might think it's the same (two arms right?) but it's a completely different story because the primary function of a shirt isn't to cover the arms but to cover the torso. So it's singular. And gloves of course are distinct, so it's back to pairs.
What about a brassiere?
Same logic, the bra itself as a whole is a chest covering, so like a shirt it's not a "pair"
Not that there always has to be logic in these things, etymology sometimes defies that.
A bra does have a "pair of cups", though!
A pair of pliers is just one tool.
And an au pair is just one person, usually a woman, and they aren't made of a piece of gold, much less two.
Checkmate, linguists!
A pair of scissors. Is this an English grammar rule when 2 parts are connected to function as one it's still a pair.?
I'd say it's less of a grammar rule and more about how things made up of two similar parts can be conceptualised
My two cents, from a french perspectice : we say "a pair of scissors" and "a pair of glasses" but never "a pair of jeans". For the glasses, it kinda make sense since you can wear only one glass at a time though it's highly unpractical. For the scissors it make sense if you consider one scissor to be one blade with a handle. I perfectly understand your rant on the jeans point.
Apologies if this was perceived as a rant .. I'm genuinely interested in discovering why we refer to a pair of jeans.
As for glasses. In the time of monocles that might have made sense, but I've never seen anyone wear two of them.
Im not 100% sure what rant means, I didnt want to imply negativity, sorry for that. This really felt like a legitimate remark to me!
Yup, for the glasses, it's definitely an explanation of why we used to call them that way, the justification does not have much sense nowadays.
Rant:
to speak, write or shout in a loud, uncontrolled, or angry way
Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/rant
A pair of jeans for a pair of legs.
They're made up of two similar parts which form a pair, unlike a jumper
You have jumpers with one sleeve?
Edit: A bra is symmetrical and has two cups, but it's not called a pair of brassieres.
A jumper is a bad example, because it's not just made up of sleeves.
A bra is a much better example. But I was never making an argument that all things made up of two parts are referred to as a pair, just my thoughts on the rationale behind cases where we do.
Understood.
Could that be because it's a French word and they pluralise differently?
Good jeans are two pieces of jean material, stitched together with an orange threading into a pant shape. Pair of jeans is prob from that.
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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