h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh. I've remembered it wrong. It was called breeching, not trousering.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_(boys)

OO... a salor outfit... Trousers are so unnecessary... feels odd being back in them after a week or so away, err, not wearing much or anything at all, mostly clothes are so* unatural Mind, I'd really feel nakered if it were not for a collar

Is 'trousers' singular or plural?

Singular at one end, plural at the other.

The OED thinks that trousers is derived, via trouse and trews "Apparently taken in 16th cent. from Irish (and Scottish Gaelic) triubhas".

Now while such a word looks like a singular in Irish (compare luas, speed, and rialtas, government) the water is muddied again by the suggestion, also quoted in OED, that the Celtic triubhas represents Old French trebus, from late Latin tubrācōs, with the medieval quote ‘tubrucos vocatos quod tibias braccasque tegant’ which puts it in the plural (they are called tubrucos, that cover legs and arms).

To confuse matters further, the Irish language has not only a singular and plural , but also a dual number. Hence the habit of saying 'a scissors', 'a ballocks', and indeed 'making a balls of it'.

In my country, we use the expression "pair of pants" or "pair of trousers." Appairently each trouser leg counts as one garment, even though it is physically attached to another.

They are not always* attached one to the other though... especially if... one err... accidentially dammages the item of clothing in question
*does the splits* oops. that wasn't a good idea.... the trouser[s] are fine mind.... at least

You're preaching to the choir, 2Legs. I went mountain climbing one time. When I was almost at the summit, my pants split in the crotch . The people I was climbing with didn't notice or were too polite to mention it.

ahh... but waht a hastle it can all be... Far simpler to just buy crotchless clothing

I didn't know there was such a thing. Does it meet standards of decency?

I know about it; i think that fact alone certainly implies, if not proves, that it most certainly does not meet any level of decency whatsoever

Often... on trousers... they've.... basically.... got a zip.... often all the way round the crotch, and right up the back, to basically where one's belt might be, on the trouser's waistline... they are... most often... err, or at least those I've seen, very often leather trousers err... the underwear/knickers versions of the same, have several variations... some with zips... some not, depending on the matteiral

err. Understand, right; I only know this of course, due to extensive research online into this for potential use in an almost entirely unrelated guide entry... not... otherwise soemthing I'd know... right/

Well, then, if you only had one of them, it would be called a trouser.

Buckskin trousers, as employed by native Americans in the pre-colonial era, were usually separate garments secured to a belt or suspenders worn over a knee length cotton shirt, with an apron type breech clout fore and aft for modesty's sake, usually with a fringed buckskin tunic or jacket worn over that.

Head gear and footgear varied considerably from tribe to tribe with tribes using that basic ensemble.

Does anyone use the word "britch" in the singular?

'britches', variation on 'breaches' or 'breeks'

The britches of Madison County?

McBeths 3 britches, well being a king he would have a couple of sapres

trou sounds French for hole ... so maybe the hindlimb equivalent to the forelimb sleeve. For the uniped only one is needed for the biped two would seem to be the appropriate math. For those with two or more legs - the so called zi-ped, it becomes the zipped trous-ers.

In the Bible, there's a hart named As Pants.

Regarding the origin of the trousers, I found the following quite singular:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28129078

>> In the Bible, there's a hart named As Pants <<

Verily one of the biblical tribes of Israel went forth to multiply a leading brand of trousers.

The sons of Levi, right?