Forum: Author Hangout

Since pants refers to a two legged garment, I guess if you buy a pant you only get one leg. ;-)

I've read that way back when the word pants originated, "pants" were actually two pieces, one for each leg. They tied together at the waist and overlapped enough in the crotch to keep the private bits private, but were not stitched together.

I would be neither surprised not bothered by the English language moving towards a singular term centuries after "pants" became a singular garment.

It's the opposite of "buy one, get one free". Now it's officially, "buy one pant at full price, then fork over for the other, as this ain't technically inflation or a cost increase, it's instead a new 'pricing procedure'".

a new 'pricing procedure

That's why Wendy's will never see another dollar from me... "Time of day pricing" my butt...

Actually, I can sympathize with that, especially during summer, where they mostly demand on untrained seasonal workers who often won't show up when they're expected to because they have something 'better to do'.

So by offering discounts during their off periods often helps defer their user's frustrations and anger, by easing the strain on their own workers. That's not 'inconsistent' pricing, that addressing their users issues as best as they can during difficult periods.

But then, when I visit Wendy's, it's rarely for the lunch crowd, instead I'll pick up their burgers and then carry them home to each, or I'll stop in when they're NOT crowded (some locations aren't nearly as busy as others, so knowing which ones to visit while on the road is a sensible practice.

Summertime crowds create their own chaos, which simply calling your order in ahead of time helps to offset (though I've never tried that with Wendy's, and don't even know whether they have a 'remote order' service, having never tried it myself.

Yet living in a summer beach resort community, we're especially aware of such concerns.

Did you try restricting your Ngram search by location (i.e. nation), as it would make more sense it it was of, say, Scottish or some non-English variant. English is great at borrowing words, making them our own? After all, 1803 to 1920 was a time of a large-scale immigration by select European nationalities, rather than a massive immigration due to widespread war or famine (aside from WWI, of course, so that's likely an aberration).

Yep, this is where all the SOL authors are bored, not making progress of their stories and thus respond or post out of boredom or frustration.

So, would that mean that each 'pant' is now only a single gasp (i.e. "he panted from jogging" via "he pant from rushing").

In the first 3 examples the word is used as an adjective, not a noun.
In the last, the only times i have seen or heard the singular used is by the store in ads such as "buy one panty and get a second free."

Of course, which words are appropriate for the dialogue are often quite different than those for the narrative, or for each character's particular voice, again. However, unless you're fairly well versed in 'voices', it's better not testing your luck, as it's a damn good way of hanging yourself.

Still, I've purposely used 'archaic terms' multiple times, and not just for my last time-travel story. It's all in knowing when to use such terms and when it's utterly inappropriate. Still, it's not something few newbies to try without studying it for some time.

P.S. I've always been partial to 'morrow' (alternately for later today, in the morning or the following day), as it's not often you find such an all-encompassing term with such a range of different usage depending entirely on context.

My copies of the Webster Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, starting with a first edition 1963, give the archaic meanings.

it is about why the word's meaning was dropped from the dictionary.

My favourite lexicographer wrote to explain the omission of some words from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. The best bit:

Tell me now, which 5,000 words would YOU put in a dictionary for 7-9-year-olds? Go on, I dare you. I double-dare you.

I appreciate his sense of humor, but as a fairly precocious teen, he's absolutely right, as some kids are 'old souls' while many never seem to grow up.