A Pair Of What?

Certain items are normally found in sets of two and are therefore rightly referred to as a pair. Some examples of such items are shoes, slippers, socks, boots, stockings, shoelaces, gloves, cuff links, earrings, eyes, lungs, kidneys, skis, skates, speakers, chopsticks, knitting needles, etc.

Then there are items like handcuffs and headphones that are referred to as a pair although they may appear to be one item. However, upon closer examination, one can see it as two items joined together and we can reconcile ourselves quite easily with it as a pair.

But there is another category of items can causes more confusion as these items all appear to be single items and yet it is referred to as a pair. Examples of these are pants, trousers, trunks, shorts, jeans, glasses, sunglasses, binoculars, goggles, scissors, pliers, clippers, tweezers, tongs, and shears. The list can be split op in three sub-categories;

a garment to cover you from the waist down,
eyewear and optical instruments,
a tool with two jaws that can open and close.

Although they appear to be unrelated, they all have one thing in common. They started off as a pair of two separate items.

The trousers it had its humble beginnings as two legs worn to keep the legs warm. Later it gained flaps that overlapped at the top where it was tied around the waist. In time it became one single garment but the pair stayed.

Glasses also started off as a single lens called a monocle. Eventually two lenses were mounted in a single frame and once again the pair could not be dislodged from the item. After all, it is a pair of lenses in a single frame. Ditto for a pair of binoculars that can be seen as two telescopes made into one instrument.

But the last category, (pliers, tongs, scissors, etc) is the most interesting. Before the invention of the rivet they were in fact two separate pieces that had to be hooked into each other to be used. It was a true pair.

My grandfather had two giant pairs of these pliers – about a meter in length - that he used in his furnace. It worked the other way around. You had to open the legs to close the jaws and I believe this kind of technology is still in use today because the expansion of the rivet or stud, when used inside a furnace, makes it hard to open and close the pliers.

But the question I cannot answer is why a single item without legs is called a pair of panties while a bra is not a pair when it is clearly two cups joined in the middle.


Have a wonderful day.