Breeches are trousers reaching just below the knee. A pair of breeches, riding breeches, leather breeches.
They were ordinary men's dress until the early nineteenth century, when long trousers took over — and the change was political, since trousers were the working man's garment and breeches the gentleman's. Riding breeches keep the shape today.
1nounbreechesTrousers reaching just below the knee.
“The actors wore breeches, long coats and powdered wigs for the eighteenth-century play.”
breeches is a garment.
Old English brec is the plural of broc, a leg covering, from a Germanic root. Breeks is the Scots form.
Old English
brēċ
Middle English
breches
English, today
breeches
Built from
From Middle English breches, from brek, from Old English brēċ. From Middle English breches, brechen, a variant of Middle English breche, brech, brek (“breeches”), from Old English brēċ (“underpants”), the plural of brōc (“legging, buttocks”), from Proto-West Germanic brōk, from Proto-Germanic brōks (“crotch, legging, trousers”). Akin to West Frisian broek (“leggings, over-trousers”), Dutch broek (“pair of trousers, underpants, long-johns”), obsolete German Bruch (“pair of hose, leggings, pants trousers”), Old Norse brók (“breeches”) (whence Danish brog); compare Latin brācae (> French braies, Spanish bragas) which is immediately of Celtic origin, yet ultimately borrowed from the same Proto-Germanic source above. Compare brail.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA