Can anybody explain why...

[Stargazer]

Knickers, scissors, trousers, glasses etc are caledd "A pair of"?

[cazzz1975]

lol they have mentioned teethpaste here as well

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/43465

[Stargazer]

I have never referred to jumpers and tee shirts as pairs. Where do you come from?

[MarkRae]

Trousers were originally two separate garments so, unless you'd lost a leg in battle or whatever, they would typically come as a pair. This expression remained even when they began to be a single garment. By extension, any garment which was worn by pulling it over the feet also became 'a pair of', hence a pair of knickers.

Similarly, glasses were two pieces of glass so, unless you wore a monocle, they also came in pairs, even after they were joined across the bridge of the nose.

Scissors are made up of two blades, so the phrase 'a pair of scissors' is not so easy to etymologise. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scissor

What about a pair of compasses...?

[MickyMacgraw]

you can't have one tweeze.

I liked that description.

[Stargazer]

Quite right Boxtops

[MickyMacgraw]

Stargazer you seem to have missed my point completely, I'm saying according to the logic of calling Knickers and Trousers a pair then shouldn't T-shirts and jumpers be called a pair too?

[boxtops]

Not by MR's definition - if the legs were separate once in the past, the tops have always been a single garment. Still doesn't explain my tweezers.

[MickyMacgraw]

Tops are not a single garment, you have the "body" and the 'Arms' which is three garments.

[Stargazer]

Micky, I do get your point, although I was aking where was the logic in calling single objects "a pair of" rather than as with jumpers and tee shirts they are correctly designated single items? Pair of binoculars is another example but I DO see your point ie anything that can be divided down the middle with teo idential halves (nearly identical actually, as being a ndressmaker, the backs and sleeves on these items of clothing are not the same.

[janzman]

We have...... one eye...two eyes------one ear...two ears-----one arm....two arms------one foot...two feet''''''''''''''why not two foots!!!!!!!!!!!

[mike11111]

We don't have two foots for the same reason as there were not three blind mouses. Some English plurals undergo vowel mutation rather than just adding s.

Brassière is a French word. If it didn't exist it would probably be called a pair of boob holders, or something similar!

[KARL]

...is there not an indignant, nationalistic outburst anywhere here on AB (or have I missed it ?) from the usual contributors over the news item that a man (with a distinctly non-anglo-saxon sounding name) was left to die in this green and pleasant land, apparently stuffed into a building materials bag, in a pool of his own blood in the back of a van driven and otherwise occupied by four men with recognisably native names ? There is no obvious sign that I have seen of a thread here relating to the story - how odd, given the other issues that have attention drawn to them.

[KARL]

oops, that was supposed to be a completely separate new question, don't know how it went wrong. Very sorry indeed.