pants

The article of clothing pants is first found in print in 1835, a clipping of pantaloons. Pantaloons became the common term for trousers in the late 1600s. They are named for the comedia dell’arte stock character Pantalone, a ridiculous, overbearing miser with an equally ridiculous wardrobe. In the late 1600s, this wardrobe often included ridiculous trousers, which took on his name when they became fashionable.

Pantalone is partially a cariacature of rich Venetians, so he was given a stereotypically Venetian name. The name was common in Venice due to the influence of Saint Pantaleone, an early Christian who was martyred in what is now Turkey in 305. Saint Pantaleone had a common Greek name that comes from παν- (pan-), meaning “all” + λέων (léōn), meaning “lion”.

Going chronologically forward instead, in UK English the meaning of pants shifted to typically refer to underpants instead around 1880. The verb form meaning “to pull down someone’s pants” is from 1972. The UK meaning “rubbish, nonsense” originates with BBC Radio host Simon Mayo’s catchphrase “It’s a pile of pants!” getting clipped to just “pants” by 1996. And so we come full circle back to “ridiculous”.

An incredible glimpse at how influential comedia dell’arte was in Western Europe is that the Spanish word for pants is pantalones, the French word is pantalon, and the Italian word is pantaloni.