Can any Americans out there tell me the difference between "a pant suit" and "a suit"?
A pant suit is specifically for women. It's intended to differentiate from a skirt suit, which is also a thing. It's generally assumed that when men wear a suit, that they will wear pants. Although some seem to have trouble keeping them on. @Pedalville
@SobaFett Surely then the two terms should be "suit" and "skirt suit"?
@Pedalville @SobaFett It's because "skirt suit" was the default for women in offices, so "pant suit" was the variation. Women weren't allowed to wear trousers in many office jobs and even fancy restaurants well into the 1970s. Old fashion terms die hard, I guess.
Lawyer friend of ours has an amusing story about Abbie Hoffman's sister, pants, and a courtroom. @sunita @Pedalville
@Pedalville @SobaFett Hah! Yes, I was thinking about that. In our multilingual/multicultural Masto environment, I changed pants to trousers in my reply. 😁
@sunita @SobaFett Thing is though, as a British English speaker, I've never been able to take "pants" seriously. Adding a courtroom makes it even funnier, so thanks for that mental image.