I thought of this during school an was like "woah!"

Okay, are ear muffs considered a pair...like would you say I want a pair of ear muffs? b/c even though there are two muffs there connect so there like one unit, but then again you call pants a pair of pants an they're one unit too...hmmm

haha wow
ummm id say a pair because there are 2 of them

that's a hard question! um...I would say a pair.

I agree, a pair, that's why it's ear muffS, not an ear muff. mayb pants because there are two legs. it sounds kind of weird to say I'm wearing a pant instead of I'm wearing pants

The etymology of pair of pants isn't that strange, when you look at the history of the garment. The pantaloon style of trouser, where we get both the word pant and look of modern pants, wasn't originally sold as a single piece of cloth. Instead, the garment was two separate legs that were joined together with a tie or belt at the top. Thus, a pair of pantaloons. Long after the legs were joined together, the language stuck.

And the fact that we were were still calling it a pair of pants even after it became a single garment has helped color our language to describe for many other odd pairs, even those items that have never been separate, like scissors, tweezers, tongs, and yes, earmuffs. The pair of designation gradually shifted to mean two separate items that have been joined together into one unit.

The English language can be a bizarre creature sometimes, but there's usually a method hiding somewhere in the madness.

^ WOW! no life is what the above answer amounts to lmao :P