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Trousers ( British English), slacks, or pants are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending across both legs as in robes, skirts, and dresses). In the United Kingdom, the word ''pants'' generally means underwear and not trousers. Shorts are similar to trousers, but with legs that come down only to around the area of the knee, higher or lower depending on the style of the garment. To distinguish them from shorts, trousers may be called "long trousers" in certain contexts such as school uniform, where tailored shorts may be called "short trousers" in the UK.

The oldest known trousers, dating to the period between the thirteenth and the tenth centuries BC, were found at the Yanghai cemetery in Turpan, Sinkiang (Tocharia), in present-day western China. Made of wool, the trousers had straight legs and wide crotches and were likely made for horseback riding. In most of Europe, trousers have been worn since ancient times and throughout the Medieval period, becoming the most common form of lower-body clothing for adult males in the modern world. Breeches were worn instead of trousers in early modern Europe by some men in higher classes of society. Distinctive formal trousers are traditionally worn with formal and semi-formal day attire. Since the mid-twentieth century, trousers have increasingly been worn by women as well.

Jeans, made of denim, are a form of trousers for casual wear widely worn all over the world by both sexes. Shorts are often preferred in hot weather or for some sports and also often by children and adolescents. Trousers are worn on the hips or waist and are often held up by buttons, elastic, a belt or suspenders (braces). Unless elastic, and especially for men, trousers usually provide a zippered or buttoned fly. Jeans usually feature side and rear pockets with pocket openings placed slightly below the waist band. It is also possible for trousers to provide cargo pockets further down the legs.

Maintenance of fit is more challenging for trousers than for some other garments. Leg-length can be adjusted with a hem, which helps to retain fit during the adolescent and early adulthood growth years. Tailoring adjustment of girth to accommodate weight gain or weight loss is relatively limited, and otherwise serviceable trousers may need to be replaced after a significant change in body composition. Higher quality trousers often have extra fabric included in the centre-back seam allowance, so the waist can be let out further.

Terminology

In Scotland, trousers are usually known as '' trews'', a historic root of the word ''trousers''. Trousers are also known as in Scots, a word related to ''breeches''. The item of clothing worn under trousers is underpants. The standard form ''trousers'' is also used, but it is sometimes pronounced in a manner approximately represented by , as Scots did not completely undergo the Great Vowel Shift, and thus retains the vowel sound of the Gaelic from which the word originates.

In North America, Australia, South Africa and North West England ''pants'' is the general category term, whereas ''trousers'' (sometimes ''slacks'' in Australia and North America) often refers more specifically to tailored garments with a waistband, belt-loops, and a fly-front. In these dialects, elastic-waist knitted garments would be called ''pants'', but not ''trousers'' (or ''slacks'').

North Americans call undergarments ''underwear'', ''underpants'', ''undies'', or ''panties'' (the last are women's garments specifically) to distinguish them from other pants that are worn on the outside. The term ''drawers'' normally refers to undergarments, but in some dialects, may be found as a synonym for "breeches", that is, trousers. In these dialects, the term ''underdrawers'' is used for undergarments. Many North Americans refer to their underpants by their type, such as '' boxers'' or '' briefs''.

In Australia, men's underwear also has various informal terms including ''under-dacks'', ''undies'', ''dacks'' or ''jocks''. In New Zealand men's underwear is known informally as ''undies'' or ''dacks''.

In India, underwear is also referred to as innerwear.

The words ''trouser'' (or ''pant'') instead of ''trousers'' (or ''pants'') is sometimes used in the tailoring and fashion industries as a generic term, for instance when discussing styles, such as "a flared trouser", rather than as a specific item. The words ''trousers'' and ''pants'' are '' pluralia tantum'', nouns that generally only appear in plural form—much like the words ''scissors'' and ''tongs'', and as such ''pair of trousers'' is the usual correct form. However, the singular form is used in some compound words, such as ''trouser-leg'', ''trouser-press'' and ''trouser-bottoms''.

Jeans are trousers typically made from denim or dungaree cloth. Skin-tight leggings are commonly referred to as '' tights''.

Types

There are several different main types of pants and trousers, such as dress pants, jeans, khakis, chinos, leggings, and sweatpants. They can also be classified by fit, fabric, and other features. There is apparently no universal, overarching classification.

History

Prehistory

There is some evidence, from figurative art, of trousers being worn in the Upper Paleolithic, as seen on the figurines found at the Siberian sites of Mal'ta and Buret'. Fabrics and technology for their construction are fragile and disintegrate easily, so often are not among artifacts discovered in archaeological sites. The oldest known trousers were found at the Yanghai cemetery, extracted from mummies in Turpan, Xinjiang, western China, belonging to the people of the Tarim Basin; dated to the period between the thirteenth and the tenth century BC and made of wool, the trousers had straight legs and wide crotches, and were likely made for horseback riding.

Antiquity

Trousers enter recorded history in the sixth century BC, on the rock carvings and artworks of Persepolis, and with the appearance of horse-riding Eurasian nomads in Greek ethnography. At this time, Iranian peoples such as Scythians, Sarmatians, Sogdians and Bactrians among others, along with Armenians and Eastern and Central Asian peoples such as the Xiongnu/ Hunnu, are known to have worn trousers. Trousers are believed to have been worn by both sexes among these early users.

The ancient Greeks used the term "ἀναξυρίδες" (''anaxyrides'') for the trousers worn by Eastern nations and "σαράβαρα" (''sarabara'') for the loose trousers worn by the Scythians. However, they did not wear trousers since they thought them ridiculous, using the word "θύλακοι" (''thulakoi''), pl. of "θύλακος" (''thulakos''), "sack", as a slang term for the loose trousers of Persians and other Middle Easterners.

Republican Rome viewed the draped clothing of Greek and Minoan ( Cretan) culture as an emblem of civilisation and disdained trousers as the mark of barbarians. As the Roman Empire expanded beyond the Mediterranean basin, however, the greater warmth provided by trousers led to their adoption. Two types of trousers eventually saw widespread use in Rome: the ''Feminalia'', which fit snugly and usually fell to knee or mid-calf length, and the '' Braccae'', a loose-fitting trouser that was closed at the ankles. Both garments were adopted originally from the Celts of Europe, although later familiarity with the Persian Near East and the Teutons increased acceptance. Feminalia and Braccae both began use as military garments, spreading to civilian dress later, and were eventually made in a variety of materials including leather, wool, cotton and silk.

Medieval Europe

Trousers of various designs were worn throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, especially by men. Loose-fitting trousers were worn in Byzantium under long tunics, and were worn by many tribes, such as the Germanic tribes that migrated to the Western Roman Empire in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, as evidenced by both artistic sources and such relics as the fourth-century costumes recovered from the Thorsberg peat bog (see illustration). Trousers in this period, generally called ''brais'', varied in length and were often closed at the cuff or even had attached foot coverings, although open-legged pants were also seen.

By the eighth century there is evidence of the wearing in Europe of two layers of trousers, especially among upper-class males. The under layer is today referred to by costume historians as "drawers", although that usage did not emerge until the late sixteenth century. Over the drawers were worn trousers of wool or linen, which in the tenth century began to be referred to as breeches in many places. Tightness of fit and length of leg varied by period, class, and geography. (Open legged trousers can be seen on the Norman soldiers of the Bayeux Tapestry.)

Although Charlemagne (742–814) is recorded to have habitually worn trousers, donning the Byzantine tunic only for ceremonial occasions, the influence of the Roman past and the example of Byzantium led to the increasing use of long tunics by men, hiding most of the trousers from view and eventually rendering them an undergarment for many. As undergarments, these trousers became briefer or longer as the length of the various medieval outer garments changed, and were met by, and usually attached to, another garment variously called hose or stockings.

In the fourteenth century it became common among the men of the noble and knightly classes to connect the hose directly to their pourpoints (the padded under jacket worn with armoured breastplates that would later evolve into the doublet