Oh heck, as long as I'm in there, here's the OED entry for breeches:

c. Now always in pl. breeches /?br?t??z/ , or a pair of breeches(perh. not so used before 15th c.). /Breeches/ are distinguished from /trousers/ by coming only just below the knee, but dialectally (and humorously) /breeches/ includes /trousers/.

[/c/1275 (/c/??a1200) La?amon /Brut <javascript:void(0)>/ (Calig.) (1978) l. 8996 Heo..gripen heore cniues. & of mid here breches. 1382 /Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) <javascript:void(0)>/ Gen. iii. 7 They soweden to gidre leeves of a fige tree, & maden hem brechis.] /a/1500 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker /Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. <javascript:void(0)>/ (1884) I. 629 /Bracce/, brechys. 1555 W. Waterman tr. J. Boemus /Fardle of Facions <javascript:void(0)>/ i. iv. 41 Some make them brieches of the heares of their heades. 1560 /Bible (Geneva) <javascript:void(0)>/ Gen. iii. 7 They sewed figge tree leaues together, and made themselues breeches. 1591 Spenser /Prosopopoia/ in /Complaints <javascript:void(0)>/ 211 His breeches were made after the new cut. 1661 S. Pepys /Diary <javascript:void(0)>/ 6 Apr. (1970) II. 66 To put both his legs through one of his Knees of his breeches. 1785 W. Cowper /Task <javascript:void(0)>/ i. 10 As yet black breeches were not. 17.. /Chestnut Horse <javascript:void(0)>/, Dreamed of his boots, his spurs, his leather breeches, Of leaping five-barred gates, and crossing ditches. 1858 N. Hawthorne /Fr. & Ital. Jrnls. <javascript:void(0)>/ II. 179 Their trousers being tucked up till they were strictly breeches.
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