pantaloon

English

Borrowed from French pantalon, from Italian Pantalone (a character in Commedia dell'arte), from Spanish Pantaleon (surname).

pantaloon (countable and uncountable, plural pantaloons)

(countable) An aging buffoon.
- c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], line 37:
  Hic ibat, as I told you before, —Simois, I am
  Lucentio, hic est, son unto Vincentio of Pisa,—
  Sigeia tellus, disguised thus to get your love; —
  Hic steterat, and that Lucentio that comes
  a-wooing, — Priami, is my man Tranio, —
  regia, bearing my port, celsa senis, that we
  might beguile the old pantaloon.
- 1882, William Ballantine, Some Experiences of a Barrister's Life, page 234:
  They constantly followed the virtuous pair, who as constantly eluded their grasp, whilst they themselves met with every kind of misfortune, until they became clown and pantaloon, […] .
- 1960, Lady Caroline Lane Reynolds Slemmer Jebb, With Dearest Love to All: The Life and Letters of Lady Jebb, page 213:
  The Bishop is a lean and slippered pantaloon, at least in his old clerical garments which he thinks good enough for the sea.
(chiefly in the plural) Trousers reminiscent of the tight-fitting leggings traditionally worn by a pantaloon.
A kind of fabric.