BS: Pants or trousers

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Penny S.
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 06:09 PM

My grandmother referred to the separate legged underwear as "two on a band".

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Kim C
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 12:10 PM

Mister has often wondered why it isn't a pair of bras. I saw a little catalog one time, though, that did refer to a bra as a pair, or at least that's what it sounded like!

Let's see..... if I tuck my pants IN, I won't get no scorpions up my trousers, but a snake might fall into my boot tops..... well that's a hell of a choice, ain't it??!!!?

Not being a working cowgirl anyhow, most of my tall boots ARE for show. The last time I went riding, I wore packers. I didn't get any critters up my trouser leg but I did get a pesky little seed tick on the end of my TOE!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 10:48 AM

Laides' drawers (pardon the expression!) used to comprise two separate legs a long time ago: they tied at the waist, and you didn't have to take 'em off to -- what do you Americans say? -- to go to the bathroom. (Although you would to take a bath.) And if you check put your Hogarth, you'll find they were covenient for other things too. If an 18th C woman with a time machine fancied a quick 'un with an ancient Brit, she'd hardly have been missed ...
Steve

P.S.
There was a young curate of Salisbury
Whose antics were quite halisbury-scalisbury:
He'd run around Hampshire
Without any pampshire
Till his bishop said he must walisbury!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mr Happy
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 09:33 AM

why not a pair of Bras?

you say a pair of boobs!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: IanN
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 09:28 AM

Perhaps it is a pair of trousers because two legs go into them? Mind you you don't say a pair of Bras do you? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 09:27 AM

People say a pair of underwear, and pair of panties, and it doesn't make sense to me either. Also a pair of scissors--one blade is just a knife, two comprise a scissor. For briefs and panties I think a triad.

Why do people spell a "tee" shirt? They look like a T.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Snuffy
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 09:19 AM

Mr H - didn't the ancient Britons wear a separate trouser on each leg? Only later joined at the top.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mr Happy
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 09:04 AM

but y a pair of trousers or pants?

they're only one thing - so should b a pant or a trouser

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Snuffy
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 08:54 AM

Only poncy southerners :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Lanfranc
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 04:28 AM

Colin Scot used to have a song intro (to which song I cannot remember) where he pointed out that US English was the only language where one could rhyme "romance", "dance" and "trousers" as "romance", "dance" and "pants" (using short "a" throughout).

A true Englishman, of course, pronounces "dance" as "darnce", n'est-ce pas?

Alan

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 03:55 AM

As a red-blooded Englishman, I feel it's worth pointing out that in their so-called revolution, the revolting French, to distinguish themselves from the reactionaries, went around with no trousers on; they called themselves sans-coullottes. Not the sort of behaviour that respectable middle-class English gents in the 18th C would have indulged in!

I believe the American revolutionaries were all properly dressed, apart from the Boston Tea-party.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mr Happy
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 02:40 AM

or a pair of shirts!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Gervase
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 02:37 AM

No-one? I does!!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mr Happy
Date: 24 Nov 02 - 08:35 PM

but why are they referred to as a pair of trousers?

surely this clothing item comprises only one garment.

no one says a pair of underpants!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 09:40 PM

Well, I actually started collecting different words for clothes when I drove a truck of artwork for a living, and yes I know the lounge Lizards song, we all did. But I don't remember all the clothing terms now. I don't know where I found the Robin Hood joke but I know I've told it three times in ten years. I think the etch-a-sketch joke came from a comedian who once played a doorman on Seinfeld, but the Rap thread improved the joke. It's a pathetic business, and I regret bringing it up.

But trousers aside, has anyone else ever tried to explain a biscuit to a Brit? The quality of biscuitness is not 'splained.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 07:53 PM

Fred, you might be interested in this old thread about the song "Ode to Billie Joe." here

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 07:50 PM

OK Fred Miller, fess up and tell us where you got that stuff from.

Very funny ,made me laugh, but you didn't just sit there and make it up , did you?

Robin Williams? Jerry Seinfeld?

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 07:43 PM

Blatant sexism! Women also should lower the seat after using.......

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 07:03 PM

Dick, another one from my dad...What does a woman do sitting down and a man standing up...shake hands.

(ducking and running)

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 06:06 PM

Oh, and I still sport some garments.

Once again I find myself like some ill-fated character in a Greek myth, cursed to forever be the only person who thinks I'm funny.

The art of borrowed material, Mary in KY, is to trot it out as your own at the right moment. Sometimes you wait for years, crouched in the marshes, then suddenly, on a Rap Music thread someone mentions an etch-a-sketch, and you trot out the etch-a-sketch joke. It's jewel-perfect for the occasion. Then the stone rolls down the hill again. Sigh.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 04:58 PM

From my distant childhood....

Q: What is it that a dog does and a man steps in?

A: Pants

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 04:42 PM

kat, I'm not really sure where I heard it; probably from my father who often "borrowed" things that I thought were original to him! Once in grade school I had to write a limerick and was totally blank. He gave me one (didn't tell me it wasn't original) and the teacher had a big laugh over it. He also referred to me as "the traipsin' woman" and I didn't find out til Mudcat (Dick Greenhaus I think) that there was a real Kentucky Songcatcher that was referred to that way. He often quoted poetry as if it were his own..."Home is the hunter, home from the hills...There is something in autumn that sets my gypsy blood astir..." Wow, this pants/trousers talk brought back all kinds of nostalgia.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 03:52 PM

MaryinKY - would that be Katie Lee who said that and was it ten thousand goddam cattle?**BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 10:01 AM

I used to go clad in garb, which nobody wears anymore, there are no garb shops. Now I just get dressed in clothes. On special occasions I might be dressed in Wear. Also have some apparel, some menswear, and outfits, but mostly clothing. My daughter has taken to wearing Fashions, Styles, and Accessories.

    In school we read Robin Hood, and our teacher told us to ask about any words we weren't familiar with. Guy asked what it meant that Robin Hood tore his leather? We turned to the page, where it said Robin Hood tore his leather jerkin off.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: greg stephens
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 08:28 AM

Ah what feelings of nostalgia are aroused by the discussion of stockings and suspenders. Gentlemen of a certain age will recall the glorious "window of opportunity" in the early 60's when the skirts got short and girls were still wearing stockings. Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 07:30 AM

where do the jodpurs, shorts, coullottes, moleskins, cords, flares, & bottoms fit? I know, I know where they touch.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 07:20 AM

I always heard that if you had 10,000 (or some such number) head of cattle, then you could tuck.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Nov 02 - 01:20 AM

KimC, I don't think it's generational, but it might have to do with geography. At least in Wyoming and western Colorado, keeping your pants over your boots helped to keep the scrub oak and sage brush from falling down in your boots, plus it was supposed to keep snakes out, too. As for showing off boots, maybe if one was in town or all fancied up for a rodeo, but working one always wore their old, broken-in boots which were most comfy.:-) Interesting to note the differences in areas.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 10:20 PM

When my twin boys were in first grade, they came home asking questions in such a tone that I braced myself for the ole birds and bees lecture. They said that in school they were talking about boys and girls and "pants." I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they kept asking about "pants." Finally, exasperated, they said YOU KNOW --- jeans! (genes)

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 10:10 PM

But were they called pettipants, or was that something different?

Do you remember "patio pants"? They were such big bells they looked like a long skirt.

When my daughter was young she used to play "dress-up" in my 60's clothes!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Áine
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 09:59 PM

Hey there, Mary in Kentucky,

*BG* I remember demipants, too!! I knew it would take a Southern lady to know what they were -- weren't they a giggle! ;-)

And yes, I remember pre-pantyhose days -- I always pitied the poor boys when pantyhose replaced the garter belts and hose -- they always had such fun looking up our skirts when we walked up the stairs at school (hehehehe). Somehow, I just know they didn't get the same thrill when they caught sight of a big nylon seam giving us wedgies and smushing our underpants . . . *BG*

All the best, Áine

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 09:58 PM

Bell bottom trousers- enter in DT for the Oscar Brand song. I remember that they were popular with women a few years back. I would guess that navy sailors still wear them.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Tom Hamilton
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 09:56 PM

we in Scotland wear troosers, and that pants are worn underneath your troosers

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 09:51 PM

Always thought of slacks (yes, fairly dressy) as pants which could be worn with a sports coat or sometimes a blazer- which was a fairly dressy jacket like a suit coat. The blazer usually had brass buttons. Sorry for the definition of a definition kind of a sentence, but I have no idea what they are called in Britain.

I also remember that grown men who wore short pants in rural or small town South were whistled at by male locals and perhaps attacked if they went into a bar. Only a Yankee or foreigner would expose their legs in a public place.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 08:43 PM

Oh my word, Áine, I REMEMBER demipants. Hadn't thought of those for years! (Do you remember pre-pantihose days, and ...?)

I started college in 1967. We always wore a skirt or dress on campus. After a couple of years of miniskirts, pantsuits were popular. The only time I wore jeans on campus was during exam week when everyone was grungy. Shortly after, jeans were all I wore. (even had a pair of maternity jeans with the little flowers embroiderd around the hem.)

Is it true that even to this day ladies always wear dresses (as opposed to pantsuits) in Atlanta?

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Burke
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 08:00 PM

45 messages & no one has mentioned slacks yet. I think of them as dressy pants. (US usage)

When I was little we wore Pedal pushers, now they're Capri Pants. I wore coulottes, now they are split skirts.

In the US a jumper is a woman's dress made to be worn with a blouse or other visible top under it. In the UK it's a pull-over sweater.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 07:41 PM

I wear fatigues - am I doing something wrong? And yes I do have red pairs.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 06:46 PM

Years ago, I was walking along one of the paths at Pinewoods Camp (on Long Pond in MA) with a shy teenaged girl who was wearing white t-shirt and shorts. We met Douglas Kennedy, there with his wife Helen as teachers that summer,- stopped to exchange pleasantries. After a remark or two about the weather, Douglas smilingly said to my young friend, "My, what enchanting panties you have!" The poor girl blushed, burst into tears and ran. Douglas never quite realized what had caused this reaction until I enlightened him much later.

P.S. Douglas Kennedy was the director of the English Folk Dance & Song Society, successor to Cecil Sharp.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: The Walrus
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 06:02 PM

RtS,

As I understand it, "Bombay Bloomers" were the British Forces issue khaki drill shorts, which were cut with a turn-up from just below the knee to well up the thigh, allowing the shorts to be let down to (almost) full length trousers after sunset (At one point, regulations stated no shorts or rolled up sleeves after sunset because of mosqitoes).

Regards

Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 04:54 PM

The "ladies" were getting quite bold by the time of the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, 1892. I have a pair of suspenders for ladies stockings that feature as the decoration a 2 cent Columbus commemorative stamp under a celluloid (?) cover. I have been told that these attached to the girdle or some such (I stand to be corrected).
Garters were those elastic things that held up flappers stockings (and always shown on can-can dancers). I have heered tell that men once wore some gadget to hold up their socks that had an elastic around the knee but I don't know if I believe that.

Trousers come from the big city stores (or pretentious small town) and pants from Sears-Roebuck. Trousers were pressed by the housemaid and pants were pressed under the mattress. (Yes, I remember when every middle class house had a maid's room). Now everything is permapress.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: GUEST,Peter from Essex
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 03:44 PM

Liberty bodice - great tune by Ed Rennie. I've never had the nerve to ask Annie what the inspiration was.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Sonnet
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 01:57 PM

Round Barnsley you wear your kex over your britches!

Jay McS

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 01:12 PM

Here in Yorkshire they definitely wear their pants over their underpants but in Essex where I grew up you wore your pants under your 'chrousers' or 'Strides' or even 'round the 'ouses' (well there were a lot of Eastenders moved out our way!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Kim C
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 12:48 PM

Garters! But most folks wear pantyhose.

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: weepiper
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 12:35 PM

Pants or trousers? Neither - breeks.

By the way, if you guys in the States call braces suspenders, what do you call what we call suspenders? (that is, the bit which holds ladies' stockings up)

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Kim C
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 10:51 AM

I say "trousers" because I think it's quaint. Most of us don't use suspenders anymore except for decoration. ;-)

Kat, I understand that the thing about to tuck or not to tuck depends on what state you live in. I know a couple of Real Cowboys from Texas, and they tuck. They are both over 60, though, so I don't know if it's a generation thing or not. I also know a guy in Nevada who tucks. My friends from Idaho tell me they do not tuck there.

I think I read in the book Cowboy Culture, that back in the old days, everybody tucked so they could show off their boots, because a cowboy's boots were a status symbol.

Personally, I would rather tuck, as I prefer the scorpions not to crawl up my trouser legs!!!! :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 10:37 AM

This is how I've always understood American usage:

"Pants" is a non-specific term referring to any type of leg covering other that skirts or kilts. "Trousers" is generally used to refer only to "dressier" varieties of pants. The pants worn with a suit may be called "trousers", but bluejeans never are.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Áine
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 10:27 AM

Just to throw a spanner in the works here -- Are there any Southern ladies out there who remember demi-pants?? And I'll wait to explain what those were -- but, I'm thinking you Brits out there can guess the answer before the Yank(ee)s can. ;-)

-- Áine

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 10:12 AM

Try to discover an "Alaskan Tuxedo"!

Subject: RE: BS: Pants or trousers
From: Mr Happy
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 10:09 AM

battle cry of the suffragettes- 'Up with skirts & down with trousers!'