Quote:

I am reading G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories at the moment, and came across this word, which was new to me. In context:

In fact, it is an old-fashioned house, very English and very suburban in the good old wealthy Clapham sense. And yet the house has a look of having been built chiefly for the hot weather. Looking at its white paint and sun-blinds one thinks vaguely of pugarees and even of palm trees.

A pugaree, it appears, is a type of light turban or a scarf wrapped round a hat and hanging down to shield the back of the neck from the sun. I did think of it as a hogwash word, but the dictionaries I consulted (where they had it at all) implied that it was quite well known in the Southern hemisphere.



Well-known in the Southern Hemisphere, eh? Well not in this little corner of it, anyway. I've never heard it before.

noho ora mai
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