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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