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#146587 - 08/22/05 11:00 AM Re: Clothes Press
zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Registered: 08/13/05 Posts: 3269 Loc: R'lyeh	Two different words, with two different histories: one from chewing to bits and the other from mangonel a machine of war. _________________________ Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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#146588 - 08/22/05 06:11 PM Re: Garderobe
belMarduk Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/28/00 Posts: 2888	Well, I'm certainly learning a lot of stuff today. I didn't know garderobe was used in English and German. It's pretty self explanatory in French with garde meaning "keep" and robe meaning "dress." So it is a place to keep dresses - a closet. It is pretty much the only term we use for a closet in Québec. Well, apart from saying the word closet with a French accent, which the language police abosolutely hate.
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#146589 - 08/22/05 07:05 PM Re: Garderobe
Zed Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/27/02 Posts: 2154 Loc: British Columbia, Canada	Around here a wardrobe is a separate piece of furniture while a closet is part of the house and a clothes press is a word in a historical novel. edit well, two words if you want accuracy
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#146590 - 08/23/05 06:20 AM Re: Garderobe
Bingley Carpal Tunnel Registered: 04/09/00 Posts: 3065 Loc: Jakarta	I've only ever heard/seen garderobe in historical contexts to describe the sanitary facilities or lack thereof in mediaevel castles. IIRC garderobe is said to have started off as gardez robe, i.e., mind your clothes while using the facilities (usually just a hole in the floor of a small room built into the castle wall over the moat). As time went by, this small room developed other uses, mainly as a place to keep clothes, and then into the item of furniture used today. With the passing of time the word also settled down in the modern form of wardrobe. Bingley _________________________ Bingley
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#146591 - 08/23/05 10:02 AM Re: Garderobe
Jackie Carpal Tunnel Registered: 03/15/00 Posts: 11578 Loc: Louisville, Kentucky	A post by my knowledgeable friend: http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=46100
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#146592 - 08/25/05 03:44 PM Re: Clothes Press
wow Carpal Tunnel Registered: 11/25/00 Posts: 3439 Loc: New England, USA	referred to what we now know as a "closet" as a "clothes press." I have no idea why? Has anyone else come across this usage? In my high school days I was a boarder (live-in student) at a Catholic school. (Girls only.) The rooms did not have closets. The closets for each room was the door next to the room door and accessible from the hall. They were called the clothes press. In a similar vein - when I visited Ireland I was introduced to the "airing cupboard" which was a clothes press with heat in it to take the chill off clothes that were brought in from hanging to dry outside. Neat idea!
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#146593 - 08/25/05 06:27 PM Re: Garderobe
Zed Pooh-Bah Registered: 08/27/02 Posts: 2154 Loc: British Columbia, Canada	this small room developed other uses, mainly as a place to keep clothes Good heavens! as if the era wasn't aromatic enough without storing your clothes in the biffy.
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#146594 - 08/25/05 08:28 PM Re: Garderobe
Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/24/02 Posts: 7184 Loc: Vermont	> biffy man! I haven't heard that for years!! _________________________ formerly known as etaoin...
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#146595 - 08/25/05 08:49 PM Re: Garderobe
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Registered: 12/01/00 Posts: 13653	for years For years? I ain' never heard it.
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#146596 - 08/25/05 10:37 PM Re: biffy
Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel Registered: 06/24/02 Posts: 7184 Loc: Vermont	heh. well, that's what we allus called it when I was growin' up. I think my Mom still uses the term. edit: ah ha! Bartleby says: biffy SYLLABICATION: bif·fy VARIANT FORMS: also biff NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. bif·fies also biffs Upper Midwest 1. An outdoor toilet; an outhouse. 2. An indoor toilet. ETYMOLOGY: Perhaps alteration of privy. (bold emphasis mine) _________________________ formerly known as etaoin...
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