What adjective correctly (and tactfully) identifies clothing that has been worn and is ready to wash?
I like to use the word "fresh" for the clothes I'd put on after a shower, but "stale" implies an odor. "Old" connotes out of style or of little remaining value. "Used" can describe the freshly washed clothing you'd take to Goodwill. "Soiled" and "dirty" imply a stain (or worse, if it's underwear).
Is there 'le mot juste' to describe your dress shirt after you return from church and change clothes?
lavo lavare or lavere lavi lautum or lotum or lavatum, to wash, bathe; to moisten, wet; to wash away. Hence partic. lautus -a -um, washed; hence fine, elegant, sumptuous, refined; adv. laute.
I'm not sure what the gerundive of "lavare" would be, but if it were something like "?lavandum?" meaning "to be washed" it might be what you want.
Around our place it always seems to be a function of time and previous actions. We refer to the "washing" both before and after the actual deed, and because it's pretty hard not to notice that the washing machine has been in action (it has a spin cycle that any rap artist would die for), the implications of "washing" are just obvious.
So "I'm going to do the washing" and "Will you fold up the washing" don't really need an extra word; context is everything!
Ask Pontius Pilate about the uses of "washing". JuanMaria, he came from your neck of the woods. How does Spanish deal with it?
It’s amazing the similarities one can find on different languages. We use to say “ropa sucia” dirty clothes and really have not a milder word for it. On TV ads they use a word that nobody uses in common conversation that is “colada” its use is identical as CK’s washing but out of TV its almost inexistent. Another of those TV words/expressions that nobody uses is “tener agallas” to have gills(?). This expression has been used as a translation of “to have guts” since the first American films come here and until a few decades ago. Our equivalent expression refers to some organs a little below of the guts and it was not acceptable when we were “Occident spiritual reserve”.
juanmaria contributes: On TV ads they use a word that nobody uses in common conversation that is “colada” its use is identical as CK’s washing but out of TV its almost inexistent.
Is this meant to imply that a piña colada tastes like pine-scented laundry water?
a piña colada tastes like pine-scented laundry water
Faldage, really! Juanmaria is obviously referring to pineapple-scented laundry water - clearly the preferrred alternative when one is sitting on a hot tropical beach.
Juanmaria is obviously referring to pineapple-scented laundry water
But to be “colada” also means to be in love and, since coconut is a component of this beverage, I suspect that there’s something between “la piña y el coco”.
really, hylacolada, between this and your strange bathroom cleaning habits.....
for some reason when i read faldage's 'pine-scented' comment, it took me a minute to realize that pini is likely the spanish word for pine (i'm assuming this, though, only because of the Pini de Roma->Respighi->Italian->romance/Latin->Spanish connection).
so that leads me to the totally nonthreadical question of why on earth we call the fruit a pineapple (and evidently italians and or/spanish speakers do as well) instead of a palmapple. or a palmcone, for that matter.
palmapple? I was not aware that the plant on which pineapples grow was a palm. So far as I know, coconuts and dates grow on palm trees, not pineapples.
In the tradition of Helen's "Name Your Sex" thread, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of salaciousness here. That said, around our house laundry is either "clean" or "dirty". *That* said, considering the frequency (or lack thereof) that the laundry gets done with, my wife and I are often forced to resort to wearing items that have been worn and not yet rewashed. This is all to say that a common exchange between us is, "Where are my jeans?" "They're dirty." (meaning in the clothes hamper or on the floor somewhere) "I know, but they're not *dirty*, are they?" I'd like to propose the categories "clean", "wearable", and "stanky".
Since this thread seems to be slowing down, perhaps I may be forgiven for a small sociological comment. I wonder how many Americans realize how powerful the effect of being deprived of free use of soap and water while in military service overseas was on our passion for clean clothes and frequent showers when we got home.
I am reminded of the old criteria we used to use to categorise the clothes. If they didn't climb into the laundry basket of their own accord they were wearable. Further into the cycle, if one wanted to reuse an item that had inadvertently been misfiled in the laundry basket, you threw it at the wall. If it stuck to the wall, you tried another item. Trousers that stood up by themselves were probably past their best, but very convenient.
if one wanted to reuse an item that had inadvertently been misfiled in the laundry basket, you threw it at the wall. If it stuck to the wall, you tried another item. Trousers that stood up by themselves were probably past their best, but very convenient. Ewww-wwww...please, I just finished eating. I guess all your friends learned to stand upwind...
Speaking of eating, and throwing things against a wall-- a friend and I went to a seafood place for lunch the other day, and I asked for some of that red shrimp cocktail sauce. It was brought in one of those little plastic containers with lids. It had obviously been stored on its side, because half the container was empty. When I took the lid off and set the container on its bottom, the "sauce" stayed put--with a vertical wall at the halfway point. I ate my fish sauceless.
I'm not sure skanky would go over very well here when refering to laundry. Skanky usually refers to someone who is not too picky about who they sleep with and who doesn`t really wash very well after having slept with a slew of people.
I'm not sure skanky would go over very well here when refering to laundry. Skanky usually refers to someone who is not too picky about who they sleep with and who doesn`t really wash very well after having slept with a slew of people.
It can have similar connotations here, but when used to refer to clothing it's the condition of the garments that's under discussion, not the circumstances of their removal ...
Well, I tried to keep this centered on the *clean* aspect of the question (see previous post) but around here it is obviously a losing battle. Well, if you can't lick 'em -- join 'em!
Has anyone else noticed that the threads with "not *clean*" and "Name You Sex" titles have received a LOT of hits! See what I mean? Leaving, now, to ponder naughty titles for innocuous threads
Our NH seagulless has it: Leaving, now, to ponder naughty titles for innocuous threads.
Okay Wow, former editress-in-chief, you've had your five minutes. You used to do ambiguous headlines with double entendre for a living. Let's see the professional output!
you've had your five minutes. You used to do ambiguous headlines with double entendre for a living. Let's see the professional output!
It was a long while ago Cap! But : one feature on a newly formed cricket club in the Seacoast, which was having trouble finding people who could play the game,I headlined : Finding players a sticky wicket for new cricket league.
If I recall any others I'll let you know. One of the more famous ones was in Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.) when a manned space capsule landed within several hundred yards of the Naval ship on retrieval duty: Navy misses snatch by a hair
Gutter Police : don't yell at ME, I'm just quoting a real headline!
But : one feature on a newly formed cricket club in the Seacoast, which was having trouble finding people who could play the game,I headlined : Finding players a sticky wicket for new cricket league.
Careful, wow, you used the "cr.." word, twice - expect to get harrumphed!
Fuhgeddaboutit, Max. Our wow is like unto Cæsar's wife: above reproach. (besides, all she did was quote some good headlines, not go into a lengthy dissertation on rules and teams. Or clubs. Or whatever)
Joining in this spirit of this feast of pedantry and nitpicking, surely the concept of the "platonic ideal" would have significantly predated the concept "Cæsar's wife"?
Joining in this spirit of this feast of pedantry and nitpicking, surely the concept of the "platonic ideal" would have significantly predated the concept "Cæsar's wife"?
Well, if I remember my history correctly, there was bugger-all platonic about Calpurnia ... so it either pre- or post-dated her, for sure!
I fail to see how someone's being described by an existing concept could be considered anachronistic (Harrumph®!)
One might as well say that since the Greeks invented democracy the idea of referring to any present government as being democratic was anachronistic*.
And even if Cæsar's wife predated Plato's exposition of the Platonic Ideal, does that mean that there was no Platonic Ideal of the Platonic Ideal until that point?
*There may be other reasons for not referring to any present govenment as democratic, but that's beside the point.
I was surprised to see "speculative or theoretical" as a viable (not specified as being obsolete) definition of 'platonic'. while it's easy to see the connection, in light of the ideal theories, i've never heard 'platonic' used in this way, and wouldn't expect to except perhaps in specifically philosophical discussion. has anyone noted this alternative use? if so, in what situation would it be applicable?
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That said, around our house laundry is either "clean" or "dirty". *That* said, considering the frequency (or lack thereof) that the laundry gets done with, my wife and I are often forced to resort to wearing items that have been worn and not yet rewashed. This is all to say that a common exchange between us is, "Where are my jeans?"
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