Where did pants come from?
 

One thing I've been wondering about recently is when and where did pants come from? Can any one shed some light on this? My best guess is sometime during ancient Rome around Europe...

No references, but I recall my Latin teacher telling us that Romans identified Barbarians (so named because their speech sounded like "bar-bar") by the fact that they were uncouth and wore pants rather than togas.

I would guess that the originals came from slow prey :D

Well, whatever the correct answer is, I'm pretty sure that it isn't A Brief History of Pants. It was Google's first hit, however...

Thanks for the info redlemon.

hahahah


thats funny

slow prey

hehe

i dont know about pants, but jeans were originally made from tent canvas by levi strauss at a mining camp. he used canvas because the regular cotton fabric wore out too damn fast.

Al Gore has a theory about this ;)

Couldn't tell you about the original of pants. But if you go back 250 or so years in the West, people generally didn't wear pants as we know them -- they wore knee breeches (knee-length pants) and hose. Just like the revolutionary war pictures. Long pants came into style in the early 19th century, a style inspired by hunting clothes used by European nobility. In those days, royal hunts were big society events, so you can see how the hunting clothes could become fashionable .

And -- and this is just my guess -- the industrial revolution was hitting its stride about that time. And if you're going to spend 12 hours a day in a noisy factory full of sharp-edged metal machines and implements, long pants are probably better protection for the legs that short pants and hose.

What about David Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants? Maybe they have the answer.... ;)

http://www.photobucket.com/albums/06...o/9c325a3d.gif

Does anyone else, apart from the British and (to a lesser degree) the Irish, use the word pants as a sobriquet for something "crappy?"

Mr Mephisto

i've heard pants used like "omg that's so pants" = "omg that so sucks"

but i've also heard "omg that's totally rockpants" = "omg that's totally awesome cool"

anyway, before the GAP™, i think pants originated from Sears & Robuck. don't quote me though....

I was under the impression that they were called that because they were hella hairy... hence why a "barber" is someone who removes said hair. I could be totally off my rocker though.

Barbarian derives from the Ancient Greek barbaros, meaning "non Greek." The word is indeed related to how the Greeks thought foreigners spoke; as in, 'bar bar bar'...

Mr Mephisto

The Celts wore woolen pants called "brigga" at the time of the Roman invasion, but I would think that there would be some connection between riding horses a lot and wearing long pants. I'm not sure where pants originated.

Incidentally, Star Wars Episode IV becomes very funny if you substitute certain words for "pants". Ben Kenobi's lines in particular become hysterically funny.

I think the old Scottish had it right with kilts. Makes it easy to do a lot of things and scratch effectively when you need to.

Pants were invented by the Scythians, an early nomadic plains tribe. They were also the first to domesticate horses, which is probably why they needed pants. The Greeks and Romans actually thought pants were barbaric and uncivilized.

Actually, the Scythians were a pretty cool group. They have some really beautiful gold sculpture.

I don't know about that. An updraft on a windy day could be pretty unpleasant. They didn't wear underwear, you know.

That's what the sporran is for, lad. It weighs down the front of the kilt so that a stiff breeze won't expose your Scottish pride to the world.

Didn't any of you see the chocolate bar ad during the 2000 election campaign - "Not going anywhere for a while?" - with the guy trying to make up his mind who to vote for? Al Gore invented pants!

I agree. I think pants were invented to protect the twig and berries while riding horses.