Thanks - you saved me the trouble of looking that up. I also wondered about
it when I first saw Stans email.
Kenneth Waller
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/kennethwaller
----- Original Message -----
From: "Igor Roshchin" <s...@komkon.org>
Subject: "Pair of binoculars" (Was: OT: Possible enablement -
Pentaxbinoculars?)
"A pair of binoculars" - is this two binoculars or just one _binocular_?
;-)
My ears/eyes are irritated even when people use "pair of ..." with the
nouns which are usually not used in a singular form (at least in the
contemporary language), such as "pants" ("pantaloons"), "trousers",
"shorts", etc, while talking about a single object.
At least, in that situation, it is based on the "etymology" of the
object itself, as AFAIK, first, pants were not sewed together.[*]
... And that usage is considered acceptable.
But one optical device in question is called a binocular, not binoculars!
(Binocular is a pair of monoculars or telescopes.)
So, people who own just one binocular [#] and talk about
_their_ "pair of binoculars" are half-similar to me bragging about
_my_ "pair of 645D's" (as I have none).
:-)
------
[*] I spent some time investigating this question, and found that this
usage and word etymology is very similar in many languages from the
Indo-European family, including English, French, Russian and several
other slavic languages. And, in particular, it extrapolated on the
objects that never had separate parts, such as "shorts" (aka "short
pants").
[#] Unlike e.g. Bob S. who owns two binoculars.
Igor
PS. This reminded me of a question I wanted to ask some time ago.
Question for Italian speakers (Dario?): I wonder if "pair of 'pantaloni'"
("accoppiamento dei pantaloni"[?] - or whatever it is) is a common
expression in Italian?
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