pants
pronunciation
How to pronounce pants in British English:
UK [pænts]
How to pronounce pants in American English:
US [pænts]
-
- Noun:
- (usually in the plural) a garment extending from the waist to the knee or ankle, covering each leg separately
- (usually in the plural) underpants worn by women
Word Origin
- pants
- pants: [19] Pants is short for pantaloons, a term used since the 17th century for men’s nether garments. The word originated in the name of a character in the old Italian commedia dell’arte, Pantalone, a silly old man with thin legs who encased them in tight trousers. English took the word over via French pantalon, and began to use it for ‘tight breeches or trousers’.In American English it broadened out to ‘trousers’ generally, whence the current American use of pants for ‘trousers’. British English, however, tends to use the abbreviation for undergarments, perhaps influenced by pantalets, a 19th-century diminutive denoting ‘women’s long frilly drawers’.
- pants (n.)
- trousers, 1840, see pantaloons. Colloquial singular pant is attested from 1893. To wear the pants "be the dominant member of a household" is first attested 1931. To do something by the seat of (one's) pants "by human instinct" is from 1942, originally of pilots, perhaps with some notion of being able to sense the condition and situation of the plane by engine vibrations, etc. To be caught with (one's) pants down "discovered in an embarrassing condition" is from 1932.
Example
- 1. Tight pants or a skirt will just showcase the tremors .
- 2. Students were required to wear blue blazers and gray flannel pants .
- 3. As if the price of a pair of yoga pants ( $ 98 ! )
- 4. The combat gent line offers everything from shirts to pants and ties .
- 5. But who is buying $ 100 pairs of yoga pants ?