Pair and Other Words Meaning Two

Pair and Other Words Meaning Two Pair and Other Words Meaning Two Pair and Other Words Meaning Two By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders about the word pair to describe singular objects: A headline from today’s National Post, â€Å"The Royal Canadian Navy is looking to buy 180,000 pairs of grey, lightweight underwear,† got me wondering about the use of the word pair when it comes to things like underwear, pants and scissors. Why are clearly singular items commonly referred to as pairs? Any ideas? I wish I could come up with some really obscure reason for the fact that modern speakers talk about â€Å"a pair of scissors† and â€Å"a pair of stockings,† but fourteenth century English speakers were already speaking of tools that had two joined partslike shearsas pairs. The earliest meaning of the word pair was â€Å"two things of the same type which ordinarily or necessarily are found together.† By the 17th century, pair had acquired the following meanings: a group of things which form a set a married couple a single thing in two pieces or two symmetrical parts two animals of the same species used or bought together two people united by affection or some similarity of position two symmetrical or identical parts of a body (ex. a pair of eyes) The of that follows pair in modern English was often omitted in Middle English and in early Modern English. For example, one spoke of â€Å"a pair socks† and â€Å"a pair gloves.† This change is especially interesting in light of the current trend to drop of after couple, another word that means â€Å"two things.† (See the comments on my post The Quasi-adjective Couple) Another change in the use of pair has to do with the plural. In the not-so-distant past, the singular was used after a numeral: â€Å"three pair shoes,† but now, as in the headline that launched this discussion, we use the plural: â€Å"looking to buy 180,000 pairs of grey, lightweight underwear† Here are a few more words that convey the idea of two: brace double duet duo duplet dyad twain twice twin two twosome Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Synonyms for â€Å"Meeting†80 Idioms with the Word TimeNarrative, Plot, and Story