Pants

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Pants are clothing for the body below the waist, a must for modesty regardless of gender; the term is an abbreviation of pantaloons, a puzzling plurale tantum as it comes from the French pantalon, stemming via the buffoonish commedia dell'arte-character Pantalone from that Italian word.

In Canadian, Australian and American English, the term pants refers to a long outer garment worn over the hips and legs, which in British English are called trousers. (though in North West England the American usage is common.)

In American slang, the expression "to pants someone" means to pull a person's trousers down as a sophomoric prank, known as (de)pantsing.

Term used to describe a situation that is worse than bad.

In British English, however, the term pants refers to underpants. It is a catch-all term that can denote anything from thongs to boxer shorts, but all have the common feature that they are worn under trousers, skirts or pyjamas. The word "pants" has acquired humorous connotations in the last few decades, largely among younger people. Many stand-up comedians have used the word as a light pejorative term. There is a tendency to use it as an adjective. This usage gained wider attention when it came to light that the then-Prime Minister John Major tucked his shirt into his underpants.

In Canadian drug use slang, "pants" can sometimes be a codeword for heroin.

In mathematics, a pair of pants is a two-dimensional surface resembling trousers or pants. Topologically, it is the two-sphere <math>S^2</math> with three points removed, corresponding to the three openings of pants: two for the feet and one for the torso. Put differently, it is the surface of a bifurcation, i.e. the surface of a crotch, where a trunk branches into two limbs.