why do we say a "pair" of knickers when there is only one?

Answer 1

Because God decided to complicate things...





I have no freakin idea!

Answer 2

There was a time when women did not wear any undergarment to clothe there nether region.

From pre-Victorian times TWO garments were designed to cover the female legs and a draw cord was used to hold them together around the waist.

This crotchless garment was correctly called a pair of knickers.

Eventually the gusset was designed to link the TWO halves into one garment.

Thus they were still referred to as a pair of knickers. Fashion moved on and progressed from long legged to directoire knickers and bloomers. Further development resulted in French Knickers, crotchless knickers, briefs, G-strings and thongs.

Answer 3

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_249b.html

Dear Cecil:

Why do we say "a pair of pants" when there is only one article of clothing involved? I have been told it's because there are two legs, but then why isn't it a pair of shirts? Shirts have two sleeves. I'm so confused. Can you help? --Rose M., Chicago

Dear Rose:

Fret not, my little anchovy. Ann Landers might puppy out and tell you to get professional counseling, but here at the Straight Dope, we deliver.

Now for the facts.

First of all, let's note there is a class of objects that are thought to consist of two independent but connected parts, usually identical or at least similar to each other. In addition to pants and trousers, there are eyeglasses, scissors, tweezers, shears, pliers, and so on.

The terms for these objects are always plural in form, and they are usually referred to as "a pair of ...." This usage goes back to at least 1297 AD, when we have the expression "a peire of hosen."

The implication is that the two parts are separable in some sense, and in fact a pair of hose can often mean two separate pieces. (True, you can't separate tweezers, but I never claimed the English language was rational.)

In contrast to trousers, a shirt is thought of mainly as a covering for the torso, and may or may not have sleeves. Hence no pair.

The "pair of ..." designation is somewhat arbitrarily applied. At one time it was common to speak of a pair of compasses (for drawing), a pair of nutcrackers, or a pair of bellows. But I would venture to say that in the U.S., at least, these expressions are dying out.

On the other hand, we do speak of a pair of panties, even though panties aren't really a pair of anything, having (usually) no legs. But clearly this is merely an extension of the expression, "pair of pants."

Further confusing matters is "a dozen pairs of rosaries," even though there are 50-some beads. This harks back to an old use of the word "pair" to mean "a set of more than two like or equal things making a whole."

A related usage, supposedly common in the theater business for many years, is "a pair [flight] of stairs." Occasionally theatrical types will say of a pair that it is "nice," and one assumes the rest of the superstructure ain't bad either. But that's a discussion for another day.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Knickers? Are you British? My fiance is British and I am American...when he says knickers, it makes me smile ;)

And I am not sure how that saying got started...but a lot of things we say don't make sense...things just seem to catch on and people stop noticing that it doesn't make sense.

Answer 6

I think that in victorian times when these garments where first introduced and looked more like clothes that the "knickers" part must have come in two parts.

Answer 7

Baggy trousers for men
As an abbreviation for knickerbockers, knickers is a term for men's or boys' baggy knee trousers, of a type particularly popular in the early 20th century. Golfers' plus twos and plus fours, now also generally a thing of the past, are trousers of this type. Before World War II, skiiers often wore knickerbockers too.

Baseball players wear a stylized form of knickers, although the pants have become thinner in recent decades and some modern ballplayers opt to pull the trousers close to the ankles.

The term came from the fictional author of Washington Irving's History of New York, (published 1809), Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old-fashioned Dutch New Yorker in Irving's satire of chatty and officious local history. In fact, Washington Irving had a real friend named Herman Knickerbocker, whose name he borrowed. And the upstate Knickerbocker clan have all descended from a single immigrant ancestor, Harmen Jansen van Wye, who invented the name upon arriving in New Amsterdam and signed a document with a variant of it in 1682. After Irving's History, by 1831, "Knickerbocker" had become a local bye-word for quaint Dutch-descended New Yorkers, with their old-fashioned ways and their long-stemmed pipes and knee-breeches long after the fashion had turned to trousers. Thus the "New York Knickerbockers" were an amateur social and athletic club organized on Manhattan's (Lower) East Side in 1842, largely to play "base ball" according to written rules; on June 19, 1846 the New York Knickerbockers played the first game of "base ball" organized under those rules, in Hoboken, New Jersey, and were trounced 23 - 1.

Thus the locally-brewed "Knickerbocker Beer"; thus the gossip columnist "Cholly Knickerbocker"; thus the extremely high-toned Knickerbocker Club still in a neo-Georgian mansion on Fifth Avenue at 62nd Street, which was founded in 1871 when some members of the Union Club became concerned that admission policies weren't strict enough; and thus the New York Knicks, whose corporate name is the "New York Knickerbockers."


See also: Knickerbocracy
[edit]
Undergarments for women
Women's undergarmentsIn the United Kingdom and some fellow Commonwealth nations, knickers is a term for panties or similar women's undergarments: "Don't get your knickers in a twist" (i.e. "don't panic," or, in US usage "don't get your panties in a bunch."). George Cruikshank, whose illustrations are classic icons for Charles Dickens' works, also did the illustrations for Irving's droll History of New York when it was published in London. He showed the old-time Knickerbockers in their loose Dutch breeches, and by 1859, short loose ladies undergarments, a kind of abbreviated version of pantalettes or pantaloons, were knickers in England. After World War I, very loose ladies' knickers were called "taxi treats", when the driver was asked to take the long way round the Park.

The British sense may have supplanted the American sense as of 2005, at least among younger users; though not widely used in the United States, the British form is at least widely understood.

Answer 8

I think it is the same reason we say pair of pants. There are two legs to them. The pair part is the leggings.

Answer 9

perhaps it's because knickers (and pants) are emergency clothes. that is, if your clothing catches on fire, and by some chance you lose only one side of your clothes to the fire, you can still say "I have my knicker" and maintain your dignity amongst your fellow chaps. how delightful! the hero strikes again!

Answer 10

1

Answer 11

a knicker 4 each leg i guess!!