I know from bitter experience that if I devote a couple of hours preparing a carefully researched response on this issue, reviewing the many arguments that have already been aired in the forum, T will answer something like, "Oh Viral, can't you tell when I'm pulling your leg? I just thought it would be a bit of fun to bring this up again."
On the other hand, if I ignore it and just let people have their fun, T will relentlessly keep posting demands that I reply to her question, for all the world as if she is making a serious suggestion that I am refusing to answer, when in fact I have already devoted hours to researching issues sparked off by this question and written hundreds of words on the forum about it.
I was perfectly willing to add pants and 40 or so other words for clothing that are normally used in the plural. This provoked howls of outrage, because people apparently don't want a sudden influx of new words. It's not that they don't want to add hundreds of new words - it's just that they want them to be added one at a time.
So all I will add is that there are a lot of other words about which a similar question can be asked. For example:
acoustics, aerobics, airs, aloes, amends, amidships, ancients, annals, antipodes, anyways, aquatics, archives, arms, arrears, assizes, athletics, auspices, avionics, backwards, backwoods, badlands, basics, bats, batteries, bellows, bends, besides, betimes, biceps, bifocals, billiards, bioethics, bionics, bitters, blahs, bleachers, blinkers, bloomers, bollocks, bones, boobies, boondocks, bounds, bowls, boxers, briefs, buckskins, buns, burbs, cahoots, ceramics, chanties, checkers, cheers, chinos, chives, civics, clappers, classics, clippers, clothes, cobblers, combings, commons, confines, conkers, cords, corduroys, cosies, cozies, crabs, crackers, craps, creeps, cryonics, culottes, curries, customs, damages, darts, daylights, days, dealings, deserts, devices, dibs, dietetics, diggings, digs, dividers, doings, doubles, downwards, dramatics, draughts, drawers, droppings, duchesses, duds, dungarees, dynamics, earnings, eastwards, eats, eaves, economics, effects, elements, entrails, esthetics, eugenics, fajitas, falls, fates, fatigues, findings, fives, fixings, flannels, folks, forensics, gallows, gears, genetics, genitals, giblets, gleanings, goggles, goods, graphics, greens, grits, grounds, guts, hackles, harmonics, heaps, hearts, heavens, heroics, highlands, hipsters, homewards, hots, hustings, hysterics, impresses, indoors, innings, inwards, italics, jacks, jakes, jeans, jimmies, jitters, jodhpurs, kinetics, knickers, landwards, lashings, laurels, leavings, leftovers, leftwards, leotards, letters, links, lodgings, logistics, logos, longueurs, lots, makings, manners, marbles, maths, means, mechanics, mews, midships, mnemonics, moneybags, morals, mumps, munitions, nerves, ninepins, nuptials, nuts, nylons, oilskins, onwards, optics, others, outdoors, outgoings, outwards, overalls, pains, pajamas, phonetics, phonics, physics, physics, pickings, piles, polemics, politics, premises, privates, proceeds, pyjamas, quits, quoits, rags, ramblings, ravages, rearwards, receipts, regards, relations, remains, respects, robotics, rompers, rooms, roots, rounders, rubbings, rudiments, sales, savings, scads, scissors, scrapings, scrubs, seawards, secateurs, semantics, semiotics, sevens, shades, shambles, shears, shorts, shucks, silks, singles, skittles, skywards, slacks, slops, smalls, smarts, snips, sometimes, spareribs, spats, specs, stacks, staggers, stairs, stalls, starkers, stations, stats, stays, stocks, straits, strings, stripes, summons, sweats, sweepings, tails, takings, talks, taps, taxis, tectonics, teddies, teens, telesales, tenpins, terms, thanks, theatrics, theses, thieves, things, threads, throes, tidings, tights, times, togs, tongs, tops, towards, trammels, tramways, trappings, trews, triceps, trimmings, troops, tropics, trousers, trunks, tweeds, tweezers, unawares, upwards, vapors, vapours, velours, viands, vibes, victuals, vitals, waders, wages, wares, waters, weeds, westwards, whoops, wilds, willies, winnings, withers, wits, woolies, words, workings, works, yaws, yikes, yips
Poll