Sort-of memes that are cracking you up at the moment

actual pair of scissors

Ugh? One pair of socks, two pairs of socks. One pair of scissors, two pairs of scissors. What's so hard about that?!

Scissi.

One pair of socks, two pairs of socks

The clothing analogue is not socks, it's trousers, tights and pants.

Uncomfortable night ride if you leave out the socks.

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Googled

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Because the two socks are not connected right?

So trousers and tights I get, two legs, connected at the top. But, pants? There's only one pant. There's no legs to have two of, everything is one.

If pants are a pair, why is a bra not? It's got more multiples of parts than pants.

Is it only legs that can have pairs? If not then why are tshirts, jumpers, shirts, jackets etc not pairs? There's (usually) two sleeves.

Gloves are pairs but they're like socks and aren't connected. Are oven gloves singular or a pair?

There's only one pant. There's no legs to have two of, everything is one.

Not sure how you're wearing your pants, but the rest of us put them on one leg at a time, from the obviously bifurcated bloomer to the barely there French knicker. Topologically, they all have two openings and a closed boundary

Since a pullover or t-shirt has three openings, it would be a triplet rather than a pair if English had gone done that route. The fact that pants, tights, trousers, spectacles and scissors are commonly referred to as "a pair of.." despite mostly having no meaning outside of their inherent pairwise structure is otherwise an entirely arbitrary happenstance of linguistic development

So trousers and tights I get, two legs, connected at the top.

For trousers and stockings, the reason for "pair" is that there was a time when they were genuinely two separate parts. Doesn't explain pants, though.

there was a time when they were genuinely two separate parts.

Stockings remain separable, not sure which trousers routinely came in two parts other than assless chaps

Not sure how you're wearing your pants, but the rest of us put them on one leg at a time,

I’ve always thought this ‘putting trousers on one leg at a time’ thing was a bit wrong. I mean, you maybe put your feet through the leg holes one at a time but thats like what, a fifth of the entire putting them on operation innit, you’d pull them up both legs at the same time and can’t do up the button/belt/drawstring until both legs are fully in place.

Since a pullover or t-shirt has three openings, it would be a triplet rather than a pair if English had gone done that route.

4 Shirley? The big yin at the bottom, two arm holes, one head hole?

Has this been resolved yet?

4 Shirley?

No, three, for the same reason as trousers have two. If you want to describe a t-shirt as a thing with four penetrations, then trousers have three, which is the more rigorous definition of the topology, but the third hole in trousers is the rest of the universe and only yo momma has a waist band that big.

How did Starbucks email a customer?

#notAMeme

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How did Starbucks email a customer?

If you use their app to order/pay, they have your email address

I don’t really get ‘topology’ but I’m standing firm on pants being singular. The leg holes are the only thing that they have in duplicate. I’m calling them ‘a pant’ from now on.

🥵

How many holes does a drinking straw have then?

Pants, short for pantaloons from the French pantalons. For some reason the French put an S on the end of every other word. These words sound plural when borrowed into English. 'A pair of' creates a grammatical bridge between the singular noun and its plural sounding spelling. Or something. TLDR blame the French.

blame the French

Usually a sound choice, but neither trousers nor breeches come from French, so there's an opportunity to blame the Irish and the Germans too🙂

Good point. So a pant has either one hole which is bifurcated or two holes which combine into one?

@Paralucent that’s interesting.

I don’t really get ‘topology’

You really have to if you want to understand trousers, and it doesn't need the scare quotes, it's an important branch of mathematics.