Whats the singular of Pants?

Hate to waste a whole thread on this...but someone asked me earlier and i was really stuck for an answer...I hope you can see the funny side of stupidity lol

Originally posted by Sinny
Hate to waste a whole thread on this...but someone asked me earlier and i was really stuck for an answer...I hope you can see the funny side of stupidity lol

Pant...as in Pant Leg.

reply to post by Sinny


Better yet, what's the plural of Platypus? Platypi?

Pants is the singlar... and the plural of the word.

There is no answer.
The english language is a messy creole that doesnt actually have as many rules as people think it does.

scissors, pants, trousers, glasses, pliers, tongs, tweezers

There is no singular Pants = two leg holes - whether you have one pair two pair or more. Like fish, sheep etc.,

dress, kilt

Some people would say PANT, but PANT only refers to one hole of the pants and not the whole object, ie pant leg.
I don't think there is a singular.

Originally posted by CodeRed3D
dress, kilt

I don't know why...but that made me laugh right out loud

Michelle

I just had to weigh in on this one.

From Merriam-Webster Learners Dictionary:

Pants:

"[plural] 1 chiefly US : a piece of clothing that covers your body from the waist to the ankle and has a separate part for each leg ▪ a pair of pants [=trousers] ▪ short/long pants ▪ a pants leg — sometimes used in the singular form pant especially before another noun and in clothing catalogs ▪ a pant leg ▪ a classic khaki pant = (more commonly) classic khaki pants"

Link:
Merriam-Webster Learners Dictionary

Originally posted by alfa1
There is no answer.
The english language is a messy creole that doesnt actually have as many rules as people think it does.

scissors, pants, trousers, glasses, pliers, tongs, tweezers

Until some of these are used differently:

You can scissor something or perform a scissor action

Are these eye glasses or drinking glasses? 1 drinking glass.

You can be the plier in an action

It's possible to have 1 tong

You can tweeze and also be a tweezer. You can also have a tool that acts as a tweezer.

Also one leg of trousers is a trouser leg.

Too many rules that can be broken at the whim of the user...lol

Originally posted by Seekeye2
There is no singular Pants = two leg holes - whether you have one pair two pair or more. Like fish, sheep etc.,

But the Mafia always threatens to make you sleep wit da fishes!


Had to do it! LOL

Originally posted by jude11

Originally posted by alfa1
There is no answer.
The english language is a messy creole that doesnt actually have as many rules as people think it does.

scissors, pants, trousers, glasses, pliers, tongs, tweezers

Until some of these are used differently:

You can scissor something or perform a scissor action

Are these eye glasses or drinking glasses? 1 drinking glass.

You can be the plier in an action

It's possible to have 1 tong

You can tweeze and also be a tweezer. You can also have a tool that acts as a tweezer.

Also one leg of trousers is a trouser leg.

Too many rules that can be broken at the whim of the user...lol

edit on 5-5-2011 by jude11 because: (no reason given)

Using a word in it's verbal form doesn't make it plural.
I automatically thought of "OHHH SCISSOR ME SHELLY" from south park aha.
I'm sure they meant reading glasses, and that too cannot be made singular, then it's a monocle.
Also with tweezers, Tweezer = noun and Tweeze = Verb.

There are many fanciful ansers on the web, but the real reason it is "pants" is because originally, you put each leg on separately. They were two different pieces, hence a "pair of pants," one for each leg.

ok, easy to see where this discussion is going...

round 'n round 'n round...

All Good! lol

What's the plural of "fent"?




Fence.

nickers

Mrs Pant lives next door to Miss Jean and across the road from Mr Scissor and Mr Trouser. They get on all right but the key parties are a little dysfunctional.

Checking the dictionary, it tells you that "pants" is an abbreviation of "pantaloon" or "pantaloons".
Presumably put into the plural because there are two legs. So you don't actually need the singular, unless you have a single leg on its own.
cf "spectacles", "scissors", which always appear in pairs.

LOL interesting replies, every one seems to have their own interpritations of this one...thanks all