A young penniless artist tried to drown herself, but it
rescued by a nice young man.
"Then he raised his hat," went on Cecilia, "and said: 'Very well. But I'll find you, anyhow. I'm going to claim my rights of salvage.'
Then he gave money to the cab-driver and told him to take me where I wanted to go, and walked away. What is 'salvage,' Hetty?"
"The edge of a piece of goods that ain't hemmed," said the shop-girl.
"You must have looked pretty well frazzled out to the little hero
boy."
My grandmother was a seamstress in a sewing factory for years upon years, and I often heard her refer to the 'salvages' or pieces of fabric that weren't quite big enough for a job, so the seamstresses could take the salvages home. Grandma had a huge bin of salvages that we girls (cousins and playmates) could use to drape our dolls in in great elegance, or so we thought. I hadn't thought of this word (so-applied to sewing) in quite a while, wwh. Thanks for the memories.
Dear WW: Der Quibblemeister says of troy would tell you the bit of cloth is more properly spelled "selvage".
Ah! Oh, then, thank you for both the memories and for correcting the spelling of my memories, wwh!
the bit of cloth is more properly spelled "selvage".
I'm not so sure. Selvage is the proper word for what Hetty called 'salvage.' I could easy see 'salvage' used for the bits of cloth.
I understand what you're saying, Faldage, and I really cannot remember what Grandma called them: salvages or selvages. However, I did look up the definition and there is the specific one for parts of fabric cast off after cutting and selvage is the word specified in that context. Whatever Grandma might have called them--incorrect or not--technically I played with selvages.
I thought selvage was either the finished edge of a piece of cloth, or the sewing of a cut edge of cloth to keep it from unraveling, whereas salvage is something "saved" from being disposed of. I'm sure of troy can enlighten.
Has anybody heard the asterisks lined up on the left edge of a comment in C, C++, or Java programs called selvage? I did, but think it was idiosyncratic to the program I heard utter it.
Well, here's AHD:
also sel·vedge
NOUN: 1a. The edge of a fabric that is woven so that it will not fray or ravel. b. An ornamental fringe at either end of an Oriental rug. 2. The edge plate of a lock that has a slot for a bolt.
...so at this point I am quite flummoxed. I do like that 'edge plate' definition!
Oh, well. I suppose my grandmother must have been referring to 'salvages' based on this definition, also from AHD:
3. Something saved from destruction or waste and put to further use.
Webster's 1913 Dictionary
Definition: \Sel"vage\, Selvedge \Sel"vedge\, n. [Self + edge, i.
e., its own proper edge; cf. OD. selfegge.]
1. The edge of cloth which is woven in such a manner as to
prevent raveling.
2. The edge plate of a lock, through which the bolt passes.
--Knight.
3. (Mining.) A layer of clay or decomposed rock along the
wall of a vein. See {Gouge}, n., 4. --Raymond.
Computing Dictionary
Definition: chad (egad! chad really gets around)
Meanwhile, lets get back to the rights of salvage
'Very well. But I'll find you, anyhow. I'm going to claim my rights of salvage.'
maybe Faldage (or some other sea going man--Bobyoung--i suspect) would know the detail.
when a ship is in distress, and other ship come to their aid, (or if a ship has sunk outside of territorial waters) those that come to assistance have rights of salvage.
after they help the sailors/passengers out of the sea, any of the goods they collect can be kept (in lieu of payment)--even if they collect an excessive amount (what is the value of a human life? how can any one say, "you have gotten too rich rescuing the sailors")
if a ship hasn't quite sunk, (and does't seem like it will sink quickly), the captain will refuse assistance, and wait for a ship from his own company (so that the 'salvage rights ' won't be 'lost to competitors'.._
there are many detail (in naval law)of who get what, if several ships come to aid, the first ship --i think, always gets 'first dibs' (a larger share)
the gentleman, having fished the young woman out of the water, is claiming 'rights of salvage'--that might mean he is asking for a kiss, or the right to keep her company, or ...what ever the he could get!
Any commonality in the origins? In Portuguese, selvagem means 'wild'; 'feral.'
interesting idea, AnnaS, since i think the rights to salvage are based on 'laws of the jungle'--a sort of wild law.
(if you're on a sinking ship, in the middle of the sea, you really don't have a very big bargaining chip...it a case of your money or your life...)
Selvage is from Middle English self plus egge 'edge'. The Portuguese word would be from Latin silva 'woods, forest'. As with WW's grandmother, I sure there's lots of chance for confusion with salvage (from OFr from LL salvare 'to save'). Reminds me of a local city here in the SF Bay Area, El Sobrante from the Spanish for 'left over, surplus'.
Dante:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
che la diritta via era smarrita
Well, with this connection to the wild, isn't it ironic that the selvade edge of fabric is actually an edge that has been tamed?
Yes, Dante starts out his Divine Comedy in medias res, lost in a murky wood having lost his way. Luckily, Virgil comes along to help him out.
AnnaS, you say that selvagem means "wild, feral." Does Portuguese distinguish between these two concepts? Just yesterday I was reading an article about "i gatti inselvatichiti dell'Australia". Does Portuguese have a similar word, one obviously drawn from selvagem that conveys the idea of "feral", as opposed to "wild"?
sav•age . . . adjective / Etymology: Middle English sauvage, from Middle French, from Late Latin salvaticus, alteration of Latin silvaticus of the woods, wild, from silva wood, forest / Date: 13th century / 1 a : not domesticated or under human control : UNTAMED <savage beasts> b : lacking the restraints normal to civilized human beings : FIERCE, FEROCIOUS / 2 : WILD, UNCULTIVATED <seldom have I seen such savage scenery — Douglas Carruthers> / 3 a : BOORISH, RUDE <the savage bad manners of most motorists — M. P. O'Connor> b : MALICIOUS 4 : lacking complex or advanced culture : UNCIVILIZED synonym see FIERCE
sav•age . . . noun / Date: 15th century / 1 : a person belonging to a primitive society 2 : a brutal person 3 : a rude or unmannerly person
Merriam-Webster OnLine, (2000) www.merriam-
And in Spanish the word is salvaje (sal-VA-hey)meaning wild or untamed, feral.
A long time ago a French Canadian told me about "Chats sauvages" pulling down many stalks of maize in his garden.
I mentally translated that as "wildcats" and couldn't imagine lynxes eating corn. Not until I had some racoons
raid my corn did I realize what he had meant.