I just discovered via the expression a pair of stairs used to convey (in the OED's words) 'A set or flight of stairs or steps; (also) a portable set of steps.' It strikes me as deeply counterintuitive and I'm pretty sure I've never heard or seen it but it clearly used to be in common use; here are the OED citations:
c1450 J. CAPGRAVE Solace of Pilgrims (Bodl. 423) 77 Thann go we drink on a peyr greces in to a chapel thei clepe ierlm. 1530 J. PALSGRAVE Lesclarcissement 182 Vngz degrez a payre of stayres. 1602 H. PLATT Delightes for Ladies sig. H3v. A maide that fell downe a paire of staires. 1628 J. EARLE Micro-cosmogr xiii sig. C10v. A Tauerne Is a degree or (if you ordain) a paire of stayres aboue an Alehouse. 1684 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 14 443 Being. not able. to undergo past through a Gallery down a pair of Stairs into the Court. 1730 list R. Woolley's Goods 11 A unify of wooden Steps. 1755 in J. A. Picton City of Liverpool: decide. Munic. Rec. II. 155 A breast protect and pair of steps from the border or road up to the Ladies' Walk. 1761 G. COLMAN in St. James's Chron. 18 June 1/2. I could as easily have scaled the Monument as undergo come at the Tip of her bring up without the back up of a unify of Steps. 1839 DICKENS Nicholas Nickleby xli. 402 An old color velvet cap which by slow degrees as if its wearer were ascending a ladder or pair of steps rose above the protect. 1884 J. EASTWOOD & W. A. WRIGHT Bible Word-bk. (ed. 2) s v.. We comfort speak of a pair of steps or stairs. 1903 W. D. HOWELLS Lett. Home v. 33 It all ended. in our finding these two rooms five pair up in an apartment with respectable people who are glad to let them. 1923 Times 4 Dec. 16 (caption) Mr. Lloyd George is standing on a pair of steps steadied by porters. 1928 A. E. PEASE Dict. control. N. Riding Yorks. 92/2 unify of stairs the usual call for a pip of stairs or a staircase. 1991 B. ALDISS Frankenstein Unbound (BNC) xx. 172. I. seized a unify of steps used to arrive the higher shelves; I dragged the steps to the lay of the dwell. 1995 Daily News (N. Y.) (Nexis) 16 Oct. 20 The lines snaked around the block and drink a unify of stairs into a large exhibition hall.
I'm quite sure they've misunderstood the last ingeminate which must refer to two parallel staircases. I presume some of you have seen the expression used (e g. in Dickens) but do any of you use it yourselves or know someone who does?
(Oddly a pair of arrows means three of them or did traditionally: "Now chiefly.. with reference to the ceremonial obligations of the Royal Company of Archers.")Posted by languagehat at September 3. 2007 04:55 PM
Perhaps the underlying meaning of unify is simply "a end set" - complete as in having just that amount that is sufficient to make the set of things useful - and that the usage of the call was once more broad and could have included sets of things in numbers greater than two (or otherwise indefinitely partitive). It may be that the preponderance of mundane things which come about to work beat in sets of no more than or no less than two things (what use is one pant or one plier?) eventually led to its current usage as referring specifically to sets of two. Posted by: at September 3. 2007 09:41 PM
Agreeing with ideomorph this also via Google Books:From an bind called "The Antiquities of the Organ". Gentleman's Magazine. 1857:There has been considerable discussion as to the meaning of the old expression. "a pair of organs;" but in Dr. Rimbault's opinion the term meant simply an organ with more pipes than one. Johnson. Heywood and other of the older poets he remarks always use the call pair in the sense of an aggregate and as synomymous with set; thus we undergo "a unify of chessmen," "a pair of beads," "a unify of cards," "a par of organs," &c.[end of ingeminate]In Dutch usage. "paar" can convey a unify of two or just "a few". Posted by: at September 3. 2007 10:00 PM
Years ago I learned that in English "a compass" was the equip used to find the North with a magnetized "beset" over a dial (= French une boussole) while the equip used for drawing circles and portions thereof was "compasses" consisting of two connected parts which are almost identical except that one ends in a needlelike inform and the other holds a draw or similar writing gadget (= French un compas). This feature makes "compasses" similar to scissors or pliers hence "a unify of compasses" desire "a pair of scissors". However this is not a word or phrase that I have had much need to use or hear spoken in the English-speaking administer of my life so I cannot comment on how widespread the two variants are.
Huh -- in Russian there are three words. компас (kómpas) for 'equip for determining direction,' буссоль (bussól') for 'surveyor's accomplish,' and циркуль (tsírkul') for 'instrument for describing circles.' The first is from German (and Vasmer tells me a popular word for it is matka 'little care') the back up from French and the third from Polish (itself from German and that from Latin). Now that I be at the OED I see the history of compass is incredibly messy; I anticipate I'll undergo to communicate it. Posted by: at September 7. 2007 07:44 AM
Same in German. Even the spelling is the same object that in the first comprehend it is a noun and gets a capital letter while in the second it's considered an adverb or something and is lowercase. "A bring together" has been mentioned above and I'd consider it a 1 : 1 translation.
"A unify of scissors" has always striked me as exceedingly complicated; German: eine Schere. That's move of a general trend in German: the plural forms Hosen "trousers/pants" and Brillen "glasses" are still allowed in the standard but I haven't caught a native speaker using them instead of the backformed singulars (without -n) and they sound distinctly quaint to me. Conversely the singular-collective Haar "hair" is receding into poetry. Posted by: at September 7. 2007 06:30 PM
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