Why are pants, trousers, shorts, and jeans plural in English? Rob in Barnstable, Massachusetts, asks about garments that are now usually one piece, unlike socks. The plural goes back to older two-legged garments made as separate pieces fastened at...
A Lakeland, Florida, woman wonders about the use of the term floodin’ or flooding to describe someone wearing pants that are too short, as in, “He’s floodin.'” There are many terms for such ill-fitting pants, including flash...
Back in the 1930s, airplane pilots didn’t have sophisticated instruments to tell them which way was up. When flying through clouds, they literally relied on changes in the vibrations in their seat to help them stay on course, flying by the...
A husband and wife have a long-running dispute over whether the word scissors is singular or plural. Is it a scissors or a pair of scissors? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Scissors vs. A Pair of Scissors” Hello, you...
We recommend books that make great gifts for language lovers, talk about footwear called go-aheads, and look further into going commando. Also, was the 2008 election a historic event or an historic event?
You have a pair of gloves, and there are two of them; you have a pair of shoes, and there are two; a pair of socks, and there’s one for each foot, right? So why do we have a pair of jeans when it’s only one item? This is part of a...
