Re: "a Pair of Panties" ?????

On Friday or thereabouts, wugi asked ...

Op 4/07/2024 om 19:09 schreef Athel Cornish-Bowden:

On 2024-07-04 17:03:35 +0000, wugi said:
 

Op 1/07/2024 om 7:56 schreef Hibou:

Le 01/07/2024 à 04:44, HenHanna a écrit :

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A pair of pants,    or    A pair of trousers
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                  ... ok because each Pair kinda looks like  [2 pipes].
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    ...but...
              "a Pair of Panties" ?????

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There appears to be a class of things that exist only in the plural - a
pair of tweezers, scissors, pliers, sunglasses... trousers, underpants,
knickers, tights... - things that bifurcate or are made up of two bits. I
suppose the briefer garments inherited the plural from longer ones
(though a few minutes' searching yields no support for this; briefs were
apparently in use in Ancient Egypt).

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[...]
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Why does English name all these things as pairs, being a single object?
Others like French have a few (lunettes, ciseaux).

 
But pantalon is singular, though the English word derived from it,
pantaloons,is plural.

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Not an explanation, but it seems like a demonstration of how English likes to
see things in "double" ;-)
>

Others like Dutch have none of it in plural or "dual".

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Even twins are just one "tweeling".

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What is term for each individual twin?

Any historic reason?

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Nah, happened mostly in the quiet times.
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/dps