On 2014-01-24 18:48, Huddleston, Scott wrote:
Thanks to Allan Sherman's comedy lyrics, I grew up thinking "half a pairs of scissors is a single sciss" :-) It's actually the rarely used "scissor".
-----Original Message----- From: math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of meekerdb Sent: Friday, January 24, 2014 5:59 PM To: math-fun
They say "pants" because they have two legs, the same way they say "pliers" and "scissors".
Brent Meeker
On 1/24/2014 6:38 AM, Adam P. Goucher wrote:
Quite a lot of Anglo-American confusion arises from the fact that American `pants' are trousers, whereas British `pants' are underwear.
Of course, I'm surprised that Americans don't say `pant' instead. (!)
Sincerely,
Adam P. Goucher
----- Original Message ----- From: W. Edwin Clark Sent: 01/24/14 06:12 AM To: math-fun Subject: [math-fun] math versus maths
This video defends the American way. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbZCECvoaTA>
Perhaps stolen years earlier from Roger Price: http://capj.livejournal.com/11301.html --rwg While "aluminum" may have been a mistake, we don't say plumbium, stannium, aurium, or argentium. I grew up thinking Saksfifth was an avenue.