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 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 pan-taloons of Venice.