PANTALOON, on the theatre, is a buffoon or masked person, who performs high and grotesque dances, and shows violent and extravagant postures and airs. The word is likewise used for the habit or dress these
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buffoons usually wear; which is made precisely to the form of their body, and all of a piece from head to foot.
And hence those who wear a habit of this kind, for convenience, under their other clothes, are called pantaloons of Venice.