Mysteries of vernacular Pants Jessica Oreck

mysteries of vernacular pants an item of

clothing that covers the body from the

waist to the ankles or knees each leg

having a separate tubular piece we also

know them most trousers the history of

the word pants begins in the 4th century

with the Roman Catholic saint Pantaleo

because pantalon was the patron saint of

Venice Venetians were commonly called

pantalones in 16th century Italy a type

of comedy theater called commedia

dell’arte who was born

the masked characters of the theater

were based on stock types like the comic

servant Harlequin the clown scaramouche

and the miserly Venetian merchant

pantalone II the Venetian traders

costume was distinguished by the

particular cut of his trousers which the

French began to call pantaloons by the

late 1700s the word pantaloons had come

to describe any style of trousers as the

word migrated to Britain the lower-class

is shortened pantaloons to pants though

the upper-class initially considered the

abbreviation vulgar by the time Edgar

Allan Poe printed the word in 1840 pence

was a generally accepted term with the

meaning we know today

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