| 词组 | pants |
| 释义 | pants Ambrose Bierce was no man to mince words, and his opinion of pants was characteristically unequivocal: "vulgar exceedingly" he called it in 1909. He was not the first to think so: • The thing named 'pants' in certain documents, A word not meant for gentlemen, but 'gents'—Oliver Wendell Holmes d. 1894, Rhymed Lesson, 1846 (OED) Pants, originally short for pantaloons, is an Americanism that was first recorded in 1840. Its bad reputation as a vulgar synonym for trousers lasted nearly a century, but its increasingly common use eventually quieted the critics, and no one now disputes that pants is standard and respectable. Such criticism as is now heard is directed at the singular form pant, which has seen occasional use since at least the 1890s: • They say: 'I have a pant that I can sell you' —H. A. Shands, Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi, 1893 (OED Supplement) • ... the perfect complement for a handsome blazer and trim belted pant —advt., N.Y. Times Mag., 29 Feb. 1976 • ... exciting re-thinking on the new cropped pant — advt., N.Y. Times, 22 Sept. 1981 This use of pant is now common in clothing advertisements and catalogs but is otherwise rare. The British have adopted pants from American English, but they use it primarily in a distinct sense, as a synonym for underpants or drawers. This is a distinction that Americans traveling in Great Britain may consider worth remembering. |
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