I was rather amused when I read this travel tip for visiting a certain country:
"Customs: Usually, foreigners arriving ... don't face hassles over customs clearance. But upon your entry to the country you might be asked if you have anything to declare. That would mean, some electrical appliances and alcohol. They should let you through with the less fangled appliances and a maximum of four litres of alcohol."
Many countries have a electric power supply that differs from ours. An American appliance designed for 110v,60Hz,
plugged into 220v50Hz could be dangerous.
[fangle (n) and fangle (v)] app. arose from a mistaken analysis of NEWFANGLED, later form of newfangle ‘eager for novelty’. As newfangled was said both of persons and of their actions or productions, it came to be diversely interpreted to mean either ‘characterized by new fashions or crotchets’ or ‘newly fashioned or fabricated’. thus spake OED2.
hence, less fangled would be less so..
So, apparently, old appliances would be ok? And what's a crotchet? (And don't tell me to look in the mirror!)
Also--surely fangle is not a verb, nowadays?
crotchet
n 1: a sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook [syn: hook]
2: a musical note having the time value of a quarter of a whole
note [syn: quarter note]
3: a strange attitude or habit [syn: oddity, queerness, quirk,
quirkiness]
4: a small tool or hook-like implement
here's something that almost fits:
9b. A fanciful device, mechanical, artistic, or literary.
a musical note having the time value of a quarter of a whole
note [syn: quarter note]
You gotta be kiddin' me! How did this come to be, pray tell? Eta, have you ever heard of a quarter-note being called a crotchet? Faldage?
yup. crotchet and quaver, and hemi-demi-semiquaver. them's across the water calls 'em that. I use them to make my students feel glad we call them quarter notes...
them's across the water calls 'em thatIt's true, it's true. At least, it was what I was drug up calling them. Nowadays, who knows what they call them, there is so much cross-contamination ....
crotchet
n 1: a sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook [syn: hook]
...
4: a small tool or hook-like implement
Wait a minute - I thought the small hook-like instrument came from the French,
and was used for fashioning thread into cloth, and was spelled without a T:
crochet.
Am I mixing up two totally different words? ofTroy? Anyone?
no crotchet and crochet are basicly the same.. and crochet(ing) as a way of creating fabric is 'new/modern/what ever you want to call it.
knitting absolutly positively goes back to at least 400BCE.. and since textiles are extremely fragile, and since the sample found was not a simple design, it would seem knitting goes long before the 'earliest find'.
weaving is old too... (knitting is a cheaper (pre-industrial revolutions) way to create clothes.) weaving is the origin of technology-- textiles (woven cloth) is at the root of technology, and 'text'(written words) are so called because of the way they cover paper like 'woven threads'
looms take hours to set up, and then the cloth has to be 'sewn' into a garment. knitting 'sets up' faster, needles are cheaper to make (than looms) more portable (so knitting could be taken with you on your travels) and the garment is made at the same time as the fabric...and the garment is stretchy--one size fits most...unlike cloth that was 'sewn to fit' and fit only the one it was sewn for.
knitted garment (till industrial revolution) were the garments of the poor. then cheap cloth, and 'sewing machines' made cloth garments available to everyone.
(look at photos of immigrants... lots of sweaters, and knit shawls--and remember many were wearing 'their best' clothes for the occation.
(knitters will tell you, christ wore a knitted robe.. the proof in in scripture--in the passion it is reported that the roman soldiers 'cast lots' for possession of jesus' clothes(robe), since it could not be rent (torn)... that knitting.. you 'can't tear it apart (they way you can with cloth-) and have anything worth while left..it would just fall apart and even the yarn wouldn't be useful, but all short strands.-- (anyone who want can supple chapter and verse...i don't remember it..)
crochet on the other hand is about 400 years old, and it was created as a way to make imitation lace. (and get around 'vanity/sumptuary laws.) because early crochet was close, fine work, it was taxing, --perhaps it has something to do with why being irritable is to be crotchety. (WAG)
