Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

I've been reading a story (Beth by Bronte Follower). One thing that I find jarring about it is that he(?) continually uses "panty" when referring to women's underwear. For example, he writes "she wore a blue panty," or "she took off her panty."
I have never heard a woman, or man, use that in reference to women's underwear. It is always "panties" or "pair of panties, except in two instances. I have seen the singular used in an ad such as "one panty free when you buy two." There it saves space.
Otherwise, I have only seen it used as a descriptor, as in "panty-clad ass," "panty shield" or "pantyhose."
To me, it's the same as "pants," "underpants" or "knickers," when referring to the item, it's always plural.
Am I wrong?

I find that knowing the etymology often helps in determining correct usage, although, of course, the technically correct usage doesn't always match common or accepted informal use.

The word panties is a diminutive of "pants". The word has been around since at least 1845 and was originally used for male underwear; the modern use of panties as referring specifically to "undergarments for women" is first attested in 1908.

Pants is plural because a "pant" is a tube of cloth. In the middle ages each pant was put on separately and they were tied together and to the belt with leather laces.

Thus a pair of pants is two tube of cloth sewn together into a single garment and over time as that garment becomes the standard the term is shortened: pair of pants > pants > panties.

Since there was never an undergarment consisting of a single side, this is a purely plural word. "Panty" is not a word on its own, although it has become acceptable as an adjective, as in pantyliner (the thing which lines a pair of panties).

It's seemingly logically silly to refer to a single little patch of lace as a pair of something, but because of etymology it's plural word in all of the few languages I happen to know. My first suspicion would be, that the author's in question native language may somehow be an exception. Or maybe he's a programmer taking world in without history and labeling it all anew.

We all have your weirdness. I would insist on person pronouns for rivers, cities and some other things, explicitly to make them gendered (both of mentioned are always female, but threes come in both, like linden are girls and oaks are men... an artifact of having a native language where it's impossible to use an adjective without determining object's gender, count, specificity, etc. ETA: panties are female, underpants and, surprisingly or not a bra, are male.)

die USA

Sometimes English has different meanings than German. I don't want the USA to "die".

dice

Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
Search for a word
slice and dice
phrase of slice
divide (something) into smaller parts, especially in order to analyze it more closely or in different ways.
"each network has analysis teams that slice and dice the exit poll information to find a conclusion"