A pair of knickers

[BrilloPad]

Next you will ask why its a PIN number or TSB bank.

Both examples of RAS Syndrome...

[OwlHoot]

I just had a thought.

Why are they called a pair of knickers, when there's only one?

Can anyone answer this?

Perhaps because once people wore a front loin cloth called a "knick", and a back one called a "ker"

Then someone had the bright idea of sewing them together.

I'm guessing.

[barrydidit]

Also if you had two pears could you say it?

No, you'd refer to that as a brace of pears.

[NotAllThere]

According to the Straight Dope a "pair" used to mean "a set of more than two like or equal things making a whole". So two trouser legs make a pair of trousers. Two lenses a pair of glasses. But I think mainly it's because English isn't entirely logical and consistent.

[darmstadt]

Anyhow, to me it's always a pair of cacks!

Which is very similar to the German slang word for tulip, kack, but can also mean pants: as in rubbish

[Martin Scroatman]

Because it's from the day that they were knickerbocker trousers.


...and it was a pair of trousers.




(next question - why a "pair" of trousers?)

Hmmm.... interesting.

And it's also worth noting here that the French word for trousers is singular, le pantelon, and one would assume by extension that this would be so across the Romance languages.

Not So!

In Italian, the word takes the plural - i pantaloni

and to really confuse matters the Spanish have a plural with a singular definite article: el pantalones.

Anyhow, to me it's always a pair of cacks!

[FatLazyContractor]

I just had a thought.

Why are they called a pair of knickers, when there's only one?

Can anyone answer this?

Because your wife is as fat as you are and hence she needs two instead of one?

[MicrosoftBob]

So you were in the traps, dropped your wifes knickers and wondered why they're called a pair

[MarillionFan]

Because it's from the day that they were knickerbocker trousers.


...and it was a pair of trousers.




(next question - why a "pair" of trousers?)

Yeah WHS.

Also if you had two pears could you say it?

[WTFH]

Because it's from the day that they were knickerbocker trousers.


...and it was a pair of trousers.




(next question - why a "pair" of trousers?)

[MarillionFan]

I just had a thought.

Why are they called a pair of knickers, when there's only one?

Can anyone answer this?