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Pantaloon

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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• Pantaloon
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1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Pantaloon

(Ital. pantalone), a character in the old Italian popular comedy, said to represent a Venetian, from the favourite Venetian saint San Pantaleone, and transferred from it to pantomime. The Italian pantaloon was always a silly old man with spectacles and wearing slippers, and his character was maintained in pantomime and has also made his name a synonym for a tottering dotard, as in Shakespeare's As You Like It (ii. vii. 158). From the Venetian usage the word "pantaloon" (whence "pants") has also been given to certain forms of garment for the legs, the exact meaning varying at different times.