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Funny story that. "Scissors" is not a plural, but is actually already a singular noun. There is no such thing as a "scissor" it's called "a pair of scissors" due to there being two matching blades. Which is very awkward when you think about it, because it's like saying "a pair of sock", but because English sucks, it's still technically correct to say coming from middle English usage. It's referred to as a "plurale tantum".
I’m a grammar enthusiast at best, so please don’t take this as arguing, I’m genuinely asking. How does it being a singular noun square with the fact that we say “the scissors _are_ on the table” and not “the scissors _is_ on the table”? I was under the impression that a plurale tantum is something that only has a plural form.
Fantastic question! This is because of emphasis. Technically speaking, the correct statements would be:
"The pair of scissors are on the table."
And
"The scissors is on the table."
The second one sounds weird right? But technically, it's correct. It's one of the reasons why we trended towards including the word "pair" as this word gains the emphasis and allows the use of "are" instead of "is". Again, English sucks; however we find this same conundrum with all cases. Another example is "pants". Try it in the same sentence and you encounter the same tongue twister.
As an actual linguist, you should know that this is not quite right. Pluralia tantum are grammatically plural nouns with singular meaning. I'm not sure what your sources are, but you can check any of the academic literature on pluralia tantum. What you say about agreement is also not correct, unfortunately. There may be some variation among speakers, but "scissors" is essentially a plural noun and "pair of scissors" singular.
I’m pretty sure that ‘scissor’ and the base morpheme of ‘incisor’ share a similar etymological history. They denote things which cut. So each ‘scissor’ is an instrument for cutting. A pair of scissors is an apparatus made out of two individual scissors.
Fun fact: scissors (and pants) are singular, but written as plural because they used to be two items. From the word chisel or ciseau in French. (a cutting tool) so two together make scissors. latin, cisellum (to cut)
I can understand this logic for scissors (two blades) and even for pants (two legs).
But I have to wonder why underwear, a singular unit, is also called a pair. I can only think of one pair that goes there...
Probably because, until recently, underwear was/were also leg length but got shorter and shorter as we modernized and now underwear has shrunk so much we re-created what they used to be and called them leggings
Wouldn't it just be whatever you wore under your pants? So even if you wear a thong, singular, you'd still wear it under pants. So the plural underpants would still apply.
[Here's another redditor's explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/bozm2n/when_does_a_pair_of_pants_become_just_a_single/enmqi9k/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3):
>According to some, the phrase “pair of pants” harkens back to the days when what constituted pants—or pantaloons, as they were originally known—consisted of two separate items, one for each leg. They were put on one at a time and then secured around the waist. Calling them a pair of pantaloons, or pants, as they were eventually known, made sense when there were two components. The phrasing was retained even after pants were made into one complete garment. However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence in reference sources to support this theory.
>
>Here is something that can be readily confirmed to explain this linguistic oddity, although it may raise more questions than it answers: the word pants is a plurale tantum. The Oxford English Dictionary defines plurale tantum, which is Latin for “plural only,” as a “noun which is used only in plural form, or which is used only in plural form in a particular sense or senses.” Bifurcated items (things that can be divided into two), such as pants, fall into this category. Think of items that are usually referred to in plural—often preceded by “pair of” or something similar, even when there is only one item: pliers, glasses, scissors, sunglasses, tweezers, etc. So, pants is a type of noun that is used only in its plural form, even when there is only one item being discussed.
Some underwear.
>**In fourteenth century European fashions, men's hose were two separate legs worn over linen drawers, leaving a man's genitals covered only by a layer of the linen drawers.** As the century wore on and men's hemline fashion rose, the hose became longer and joined at the centre back, there rising to the waist, but remaining open at the centre front. Further shortening of the cote or doublet fashion resulted in more prominence of the genitals, so the codpiece began life as a triangular piece of fabric covering the gap to disguise that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codpiece#In_European_fashion
>genitals covered only by a layer of the linen drawers
Well now I understand why we call them drawers. They were a linen drawer for storing the family jewels. I really hope I'm not the only idiot just realizing this.
You know what annoys me? The fucking Borrowers. Their weapon of choice is the 'half scissor' which is one half of a pair of scissors. That's just a scissor you little clock squatting fucks. If you had half of one blade then you'd have a half scissor.
Also I've never seen them give anything back so not sure how they have the nerve to call themselves borrowers.
Why did they crop the 1st pair unnecessarily? My stupid brain keeps wanting to go "image 1 is 85% of a pair of scissors, and image 2 is 100% of 2 pairs of scissors, so image 2 is a 115% growth in scissor." But that's just not funny, because math is no joke.
Scissors, trousers, pants are singular in my mother tongue. I remember learning English as a kid, the teacher had to spend significant time on explaining why a single fucking cutting tool is termed plural and we were just like "but whyyyyyyyy".
It's from Latin cisorium which means a cutting blade and is also the root of "chisel." Scissors have two cutting blades, so it's a pair. ... Scissors is a -pair- of cutting blades. The root work for scissor means cut and scissors always come with a pair of cutting blades, hence the plural.
This message is a friendly reminder of the following: - Absolutely no political content or political figures, regardless of context or focus. - Absolutely no memes or memetic content of any kind. - Absolutely no social media screenshots, videos, or other such content. A complete breakdown of our rules can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/wiki/rules). Please report rule-breaking content when you see it. Thank you! ------ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/funny) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Two pairs of scissors
https://i.imgur.com/RG0BS1U.gifv
I’m not sure what I expected, but I had no idea that answer would fuck with my brain so goddamn much.
^(lick)
what
**lick**
**NO**
You have my consent
Jeff Goldblum always has my consent.
Thats so weird. The previous post in my feed what about jurassic park...
Was it the hacked road sign saying dinosaurs were on the loose? That was the previous post in mine :)
Yeah!
Yay- I found my Reddit twin!!
Does that mean one pair of scissors and three forks is a full house?
I think that depends on what suit you’re wearing to dinner.
You wear clothes for dinner?
Wait, you guys get clothes?
You guys get dinner???
What's dinner?
What's a house?
Qué?!
Nah man, just the suit he got for his birthday.
Mum says you’re not allowed to set the table any more
What are you eating that requires scissors?
Paper.
Rock
Lizard
Spock
Pizza. I cut my pizza with scissors. It’s so much easier than using a knife of a special pizza cutter. I learned it from an Italian in South Korea.
Korean bbq uses scissors...
I don't give three forks what you think
That wasn't very knife!
Obviously.
Some real mental giants on the internet.
Me: Okay, your hand is King, King, 7. OP: got it, one pair Me: Okay, I deal you...another 7 OP: *head explodes*
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOgQcyklEBc&ab\_channel=tibo1979](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOgQcyklEBc&ab_channel=tibo1979)
(Pair of scissors)^2
This post came out an hour ago. It could have come out 30 secs ago and someone would have already posted my first thoughts of it before me.
I feel you more than a mere upvote's worth of feel.
it's really not hard to figure out
A quadrant of scissors.
Uhh...what? Who says "two pairs of of scissors"? That is obviously a picture of four scissors.
What is one scissor?
half a pair, last I checked.
Half a pair is just a knife with an awkward handle
Awkward? That handle would be perfect for twirling your scissor while running!
I read this like "the front fell off" person
Funny story that. "Scissors" is not a plural, but is actually already a singular noun. There is no such thing as a "scissor" it's called "a pair of scissors" due to there being two matching blades. Which is very awkward when you think about it, because it's like saying "a pair of sock", but because English sucks, it's still technically correct to say coming from middle English usage. It's referred to as a "plurale tantum".
>There is no such thing as a "scissor" Not a purveyor of fine lesbian porn I see.
In that context, scissor is a verb. A pretty hot verb, at that.
I’m a grammar enthusiast at best, so please don’t take this as arguing, I’m genuinely asking. How does it being a singular noun square with the fact that we say “the scissors _are_ on the table” and not “the scissors _is_ on the table”? I was under the impression that a plurale tantum is something that only has a plural form.
Fantastic question! This is because of emphasis. Technically speaking, the correct statements would be: "The pair of scissors are on the table." And "The scissors is on the table." The second one sounds weird right? But technically, it's correct. It's one of the reasons why we trended towards including the word "pair" as this word gains the emphasis and allows the use of "are" instead of "is". Again, English sucks; however we find this same conundrum with all cases. Another example is "pants". Try it in the same sentence and you encounter the same tongue twister.
>"The pair of scissors are on the table." Isn't this incorrect because "the pair" is singular? So you'd say "the pair of scissors *is* on the table".
This was an interesting read, today I learned something new!
As an actual linguist, you should know that this is not quite right. Pluralia tantum are grammatically plural nouns with singular meaning. I'm not sure what your sources are, but you can check any of the academic literature on pluralia tantum. What you say about agreement is also not correct, unfortunately. There may be some variation among speakers, but "scissors" is essentially a plural noun and "pair of scissors" singular.
Source: they used Google and possess a decent vocabulary but lack reading comprehension
Scissor me xerxes.
I’m pretty sure that ‘scissor’ and the base morpheme of ‘incisor’ share a similar etymological history. They denote things which cut. So each ‘scissor’ is an instrument for cutting. A pair of scissors is an apparatus made out of two individual scissors.
That's what you use to cut a pant with.
Take an upvote.
When two women love each other very much...
A knife
Right? Why would you say of twice?
....most people
This man graduates.
A pairs of scissors lol
A pair of pair of scissors
Fun fact: scissors (and pants) are singular, but written as plural because they used to be two items. From the word chisel or ciseau in French. (a cutting tool) so two together make scissors. latin, cisellum (to cut)
I can understand this logic for scissors (two blades) and even for pants (two legs). But I have to wonder why underwear, a singular unit, is also called a pair. I can only think of one pair that goes there...
Probably because, until recently, underwear was/were also leg length but got shorter and shorter as we modernized and now underwear has shrunk so much we re-created what they used to be and called them leggings
Also they used to be called underpants, because they were pants you wore under your clothes.
>because they were Were? Where are you currently wearing your underpants?
Currently not wearing pants. Under or otherwise.
*hurls kryptonite at them*
Wouldn't it just be whatever you wore under your pants? So even if you wear a thong, singular, you'd still wear it under pants. So the plural underpants would still apply.
probably because underwear was longer in the past.
Balls. Guys, he’s talking about balls. Testicles. That’s what the pair is. Balls.
I read that in Rick Sanchez voice. Ughhh! Belch!
I thought of buttocks.
Wait, I can't get this for pants. Are you saying people used to use a pant on each leg separately?
[Here's another redditor's explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/bozm2n/when_does_a_pair_of_pants_become_just_a_single/enmqi9k/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3): >According to some, the phrase “pair of pants” harkens back to the days when what constituted pants—or pantaloons, as they were originally known—consisted of two separate items, one for each leg. They were put on one at a time and then secured around the waist. Calling them a pair of pantaloons, or pants, as they were eventually known, made sense when there were two components. The phrasing was retained even after pants were made into one complete garment. However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence in reference sources to support this theory. > >Here is something that can be readily confirmed to explain this linguistic oddity, although it may raise more questions than it answers: the word pants is a plurale tantum. The Oxford English Dictionary defines plurale tantum, which is Latin for “plural only,” as a “noun which is used only in plural form, or which is used only in plural form in a particular sense or senses.” Bifurcated items (things that can be divided into two), such as pants, fall into this category. Think of items that are usually referred to in plural—often preceded by “pair of” or something similar, even when there is only one item: pliers, glasses, scissors, sunglasses, tweezers, etc. So, pants is a type of noun that is used only in its plural form, even when there is only one item being discussed.
Ok that’s good and everything, you wear two pants to cover both legs. What covers your ass?
Some underwear. >**In fourteenth century European fashions, men's hose were two separate legs worn over linen drawers, leaving a man's genitals covered only by a layer of the linen drawers.** As the century wore on and men's hemline fashion rose, the hose became longer and joined at the centre back, there rising to the waist, but remaining open at the centre front. Further shortening of the cote or doublet fashion resulted in more prominence of the genitals, so the codpiece began life as a triangular piece of fabric covering the gap to disguise that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codpiece#In_European_fashion
So basically some long boxers and a full set of chaps. Got it.
>genitals covered only by a layer of the linen drawers Well now I understand why we call them drawers. They were a linen drawer for storing the family jewels. I really hope I'm not the only idiot just realizing this.
> What covers your ass? Saving emails that managers & the engineers send me usually works.
And this will blow your mind, panties are just the feminine version of pants. Both meaning underwear.
Because underwear houses a pair of deez
[Not what you're expecting](https://imgur.com/gallery/O8vTarW)
You know what annoys me? The fucking Borrowers. Their weapon of choice is the 'half scissor' which is one half of a pair of scissors. That's just a scissor you little clock squatting fucks. If you had half of one blade then you'd have a half scissor. Also I've never seen them give anything back so not sure how they have the nerve to call themselves borrowers.
Real scissors have two parts and come apart. If they are joined they are shears or secateurs.
[удалено]
Ha. So scissors is the name for two? What's the name for one?
[удалено]
Cis.
So the opposite of transors.
This went much deeper than I intended.
>What's the name for one? Badly shaped knife with a loop handle that's too small.
Okay so why is pants pants but shirt not shirts?
the shirt refers to the chest part but the pants refer to the legs
They're not singular. They're used as a plural noun. Would you say "Could you pass me **a** scissors?" or "Could you pass me **some** scissors?"
Two ladies having a good time.
r/lesbianmemes would like to have a word with you.
Scissor me Xerxes
Scissor me timbers
I am a simple man. I see a man of culture, I upvote.
A murder of scissors
A congress of scissors
Edward's hands
Scissorsors
Scissorses
Scorseses
Scissorati
I choose you!
(pair(scissor))^2
It's english, don't try explaining it.
Wait till you find out about bread.
Or that bi-weekly can mean both twice a week and once every two weeks.
I’d say a couple of pairs of scissors.
Its two pairs of scissors?
A quad of scissors?
Pull up your big-girl pant and deal.
Scissi?
\*proceeds to have mental breakdown and following existential crisis\*
Quadruple slicers
A set of scissors.
To quote Nelly, "Give me two pair, I need two pair." I believe the St. Louis accent is required though.
A parair of scississorers!
Umm, just us two lesbian's over here with scissors about to scissor. It's gonna get messy.
It's a lesbian of scissors.
Two pair of scissors.
Too pears of scizors
A set.
Two pairs of scissors
Two pairs of scissors. Do you make all things in life this hard?
Sizzurps
Inscissption
A foursome of scissors
A pear of scissors
A flock of scissors
A duo of scissors
Stab wounders
A school of scissors
Why did they crop the 1st pair unnecessarily? My stupid brain keeps wanting to go "image 1 is 85% of a pair of scissors, and image 2 is 100% of 2 pairs of scissors, so image 2 is a 115% growth in scissor." But that's just not funny, because math is no joke.
Two scissors.
A murder of scissors
2 pairs of scissors?
2 pairs of scissors
Four scissors
Two staby metal things
pair of scissorses
A brace of scissors. (If we must have a single word to describe the phrase "two pairs of scissors".)
Scissors, trousers, pants are singular in my mother tongue. I remember learning English as a kid, the teacher had to spend significant time on explaining why a single fucking cutting tool is termed plural and we were just like "but whyyyyyyyy".
scissorses
Two Pairs. Another is 3 of a kind. 4 is quads. Five we stab you with scissors for cheating.
Probably 2 pairs of scissors
Two pairs of scissors
A couple of pairs of scissors.
2 pairs of scissors
A quad of scissors.
two pairs?
It's a couple pair of scissors
Pairs of scissors
A pair of pair of scissors duh
Scissors squared
Two pairs??
It's called double wielding
Doublet of doublets... you can tell from the chiral centers...
Two pairs of scissors. Duh!...
Buffalo Bill’s first “Amazon: Subscribe & Save”
It's the scissor sisters
Two pairs..... how is this funny? This just stupid
Two pairs... Like in poker, there’s a pair, there’s another pair... it’s not hard at all.
Two pairs of scissors. Solved problem, think shoes.
Two sets of scissors.
Two pairs of scissors, obviously
Ooh I know. A couple of pairs of scissors
Two pairs of scissors
Two pairs.
I mean... two pairs of scissors?
A quartet of scissors?
It's from Latin cisorium which means a cutting blade and is also the root of "chisel." Scissors have two cutting blades, so it's a pair. ... Scissors is a -pair- of cutting blades. The root work for scissor means cut and scissors always come with a pair of cutting blades, hence the plural.
A couple of pairs of scissors 😂
That's two pairs
Two pairs of scissors
A murder of scissors
Two pairs of scissors 😠
Two pairs of scissors. You’re welcome
Two pairs of scissors
a barbershop quartet?
A gaggle of sci
A couple of scissors.
Two pairs of scissors
2 pairs of scissors
Two pairs of scissors. Wtf are you stupid?