Word: words
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...Marking System" is what the best authorities have been pleased to call the method of marking now existing at Harvard; but even to the recently initiated this word "system" must seem a keen bit of sarcasm. The great errors and injuries of the present system are so well known that any consideration of them on our part is unnecessary. We trust, however, that we shall not seem too presumptuous if we venture to suggest a remedy. It certainly requires no great ability to compare the results of established systems with the evils of the vacillating method in use here...
Again it was suggested that if we take the words ce qui pend au talon, "that which hangs down to the heels," and then erase all but the verb and the noun, we shall retain the sound of pantalons, from which the present spelling might well arise. The word, at any rate, has been used in English since the time of Hudibras, who says...
Worcester, however, under his definition of the word, gives the following derivations...
...word originating among the Venetians, who wore the garment, calling it pantaloni, from Pantaleon, formerly the patron saint of Venice." - MENAGE. "Originally a baptismal name very frequent among the Venetians, and hence applied to them, by the other states as a common name; afterwards, a name of derision, as applying to a part of their dress that then distinguished the Venetians, namely, breeches and stockings that were all of a piece." - SMART. "His [Pantaloon's] name is said by antiquaries to be derived from the Italian words 'Pianta leone,' as it were the 'Lion planter,' in allusion to the boastful...
Webster's derivation is substantially the same, adding that the word comes from the Greek ???, all or entirely a lion, a personal name with the Greeks...