From: wugi@brol.invalid
Op 6/07/2024 om 12:30 schreef Ruud Harmsen:
> Fri, 05 Jul 2024 15:25:52 -0700: Snidely
> 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
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