_Trunck Breeches._--"X.Y.Z." (No. 24. p. 384) will also find the
following in Dryden's _Translation of Perseus_:--
"There on the walls by Polynotu's hand,
The conquered Medians in _trunk_-breeches stand."
Certainly a very free translation. See the original, Sat. 3. _Trunck_ is
from the Latin _truncus_, cut short, maimed, imperfect. In the preface
to _Johnson's Dictionary_ we have the following:--
"The examples are too often injudicious _truncated_."
Vide also _Shaw, Museum Liverianum_, or rather examples given in
_Richardson's Dictionary_. Shaw, in speaking of the feathers of certain
birds, says,
"They appear as if cut off transversely towards their ends with
scissors. This is a mode of termination which in the language of
natural history is called _truncated_."
The word _trunck-hose_ is often met with.