trousers

A1 Topic:Clothing & Appearance

US /ˈtɹaʊzɚz/ UK /ˈtɹaʊzəz/ See IPA manual

Freq #5760

Meanings

1

noun
A piece of clothing that covers your body from the waist down, with a separate part for each leg.

He wore a smart pair of grey trousers to the interview.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a piece of clothing that... pant breeches britches

Word family

Forms breekstrousertrousered

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

long trousers
trousers whose legs reach down toward the feet

Adjective + noun

Idioms (1)

See all

get caught with your pants down
Matching variant: get caught with your trousers down

be embarrassed or disadvantaged because you are unprepared

Simplified etymology

Trousers has Scottish roots and is related to trews, from Irish triús or Gaelic triubhas. The word first entered English in a singular form, but by the early 17th century trousers had become plural, probably under the influence of drawers.

Etymology

Attested since the 1610s, from the earlier form trouzes (attested since the 1580s), extended from trouse (1570s), with plural ending typical of things in pairs, from Middle Irish triubus (“close-fitting shorts”), from Old Irish tribus, of uncertain origin. The unexplained intrusive second -r- is perhaps due to the influence of drawers. Doublet of trews (“trousers”). Old Irish tribus is probably a borrowing of Anglo-Norman tribuz, trebuz, from Old French trebus, from Old Occitan trebucs, trabucs, from Late Latin trabrugi, tribuces, tubruci (“leg-coverings”), from an early Germanic language, lik…

triubus mga tribus Latin tribuz xno trebus Old French trebucs pro trabrugi la-lat *𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌱𐍂𐍉𐌺𐍃 Gothic *þeuhabrōks Proto-Germanic *þeuhą Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Clothing & Appearance

External links

# trousers

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈtɹaʊzɚz/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈtɹaʊzəz/
**Frequency rank:** 5760

## Meanings
1. A piece of clothing that covers your body from the waist down, with a separate part for each leg.

## Examples
- He wore a smart pair of grey trousers to the interview.

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: triubus
- Root: tribus
- Root: tribuz
- Root: trebus
- Root: trebucs
- Root: trabrugi
- Root: *𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌱𐍂𐍉𐌺𐍃
- Root: *þeuhabrōks
- Root: *þeuhą

## Etymology
Attested since the 1610s, from the earlier form trouzes (attested since the 1580s), extended from trouse (1570s), with plural ending typical of things in pairs, from Middle Irish triubus (“close-fitting shorts”), from Old Irish tribus, of uncertain origin. The unexplained intrusive second -r- is perhaps due to the influence of drawers. Doublet of trews (“trousers”). Old Irish tribus is probably a borrowing of Anglo-Norman tribuz, trebuz, from Old French trebus, from Old Occitan trebucs, trabucs, from Late Latin trabrugi, tribuces, tubruci (“leg-coverings”), from an early Germanic language, lik…

## AI Etymology
Trousers is attested since the 1610s, from the earlier form trouzes (attested since the 1580s), extended from trouse (1570s), with plural ending typical of things in pairs, from Middle Irish triubus (“close-fitting shorts”), from Old Irish tribus, of uncertain origin. The unexplained intrusive second -r- is perhaps due to the influence of drawers. Doublet of trews (“trousers”). In present-day use, it can mean a piece of clothing that covers your body from the waist down, with a separate part for each leg.

## Topics
- Clothing & Appearance

markdown