Pants? Trousers? Slacks?

[debster812]

So what's the difference.

DH and I just spent about 15 minutes programming my new pedometer. (Mfg in Taiwan, and the translation of the directions is *less* than stellar) But one of the last translations is:

Clip the device to the top of your shorts, pants, trousers, or slacks. What is the differnce between pants, trousers, and slacks? Does anyone know?

Just something to ponder on this oh so exciting Friday night. Carry on with your DISing....

 

[dandave]

And I was just bored enough to go find out...

http://www.m-w.com/wftw/98mar/031998.htm

 

[debster812]

dandave--there you go clearing up my nonsense thread with logic and definition.

Color us both bored tonight. I'm going to go read the whole thing.

PS--that's kind of a cool site, from a linguistic standpoint.

 

[dandave]

LOL!

It was pretty interesting. If my brain weren't filled with useless trivia, then I think it would somehow cave in.

 

[Cindy B]

If you called them dungarees, you would be my father in law.. In fact, I don't think anyone over the age of 70 called pants anything else...

 

[MrsMud]

In my mind, PANTS has a very broad definition of, basically, any two legged garmant longer than shorts. Could be as casual as jeans or sweats, or as dressy as tuxedo PANTS, worn by either a male or female. On the other hand, SLACKS are worn by a woman and TROUSERS are worn by a man. Neither term would include PANTS that are as casual as jeans or sweats, though.

If you called them dungarees, you would be my father in law.. In fact, I don't think anyone over the age of 70 called pants anything else...

Growing up, my father always used the term dungarees, and in fact we all did, but only for jeans.

 

[princess lovers mom]

Isn't it amazing in our world that someone can ask such a nonsense question such as this only to have another someone find a web site wherin the first sentence is an exact match to the initial question...

My parents wonder what the internet is all about..no wonder I cannot put it into words...

I cannot wait by the way to find a way to use the word trouser - not trousers - in conversation this weekend!! LOL

 

[Miss Mickey Mania]

I can't believe I'm actually adding to this mayhem but here I go

Here in the UK we call all two legged garments trousers, with the exception of shorts and jeans. That's for men, women and children. Nobody would ever use the word slacks, and pants are what we call underwear

Louise