this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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We refer to jeans as "a pair of jeans", but the only thing that there are two of is the legs, it's still only one item of clothing. (lemmy.radio)
submitted 2 days ago by vk6flab@lemmy.radio to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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You can't wear one leg each from two different pairs of jeans and go about your daily business, like you could for two pairs of shoes or socks, each of which is independent from the other, albeit left and right specific in various cases.

The same is true for a pair of reading glasses.

Whilst it's obvious that both glasses and jeans (and pants in general) are referred to as being a pair, due to the two legs and eyes aspect, we don't refer to a jumper as a pair of jumpers, unless there's physically four sleeves attached to two bodies.

Why is that and where else does this occur?

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[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 32 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Pants used to be two parts that were joined by lacing them together like shoes at the crotch. So weaving lashed together from the belly button to the groin to the ass and back up to the lower back.

I believe puffy white undershorts would be worn underneath, and sometimes a codpiece.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 13 points 2 days ago

Another possibility is that "pants" comes from "pantaloons." Like some other nouns ("scissors" comes to mind), they appear to be plural, and so people tend to attach other designations of plurality to them.

https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-say-a-pair-of-pants

[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's a whole image right there .. got any evidence of this?

[–] CrackedLinuxISO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's interesting. The Encyclopaedia Britannica appears to contradict this, stating:

However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence in reference sources to support this theory.

Source: see the reply by @Nougat@fedia.io to you.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 7 points 2 days ago

It is also true that pants were originally two separate legs, lashed as shown. But that might not be the reason we refer to them as a "pair of pants."