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

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”

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

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

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.