subs. (vulgar).—Short for ‘pantaloons.’ Also PANTEYS, and (colloquial) PANTALETTES [= a school-girl’s breeches].
1870. R. G. WHITE, Words and Their Uses, 211. Gent and PANTS—Let these words go together like the things they signify. The one always wears the other.
1843. W. T. PORTER, ed., The Big Bear of Arkansas, etc., 104. If I hadn’t a had on PANTALETS I reckon somebody would of knowd whether I gartered above my knees or not.
1848. W. E. BURTON, Waggeries and Vagaries, 95. I’ve a Colt’s revolver in each PANTEY’S pocket.
1851. O. W. HOLMES, Urania, in Poems, 217.
| The thing named ‘PANTS’ in certain documents, | |
| A word not made for gentlemen, but ‘gents.’ |
1852. S. WARNER (‘Elizabeth Wetherell’), Queechy. Miss Letitia Ann Thornton, a tall grown girl in PANTALETTES.
1853. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Digby Grand, xx. Wonderfully-fitting continuations, PANTS he calls them.
1878. YATES [World, 16 Jan.]. Sterry, the pet of PANTALETTES, the laureate of frills.
1883. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Life on the Mississippi, xxxviii. The young ladies, as children, in slippers and scalloped PANTELETTES.
