Britspeak - vest, pinafore, haricot beans

Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) catlady at wicca.net
Sat Nov 20 22:49:15 UTC 2004


Carol wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/25148 :

<< Waistcoat, weskit, vest: I think that's the etymology, but I didn't
look it up. >>

http://www.bartleby.com/61/60/V0076000.html (American Heritage
Dictionary): 

"NOUN 5a. Archaic Clothing; raiment. b. Obsolete An ecclesiastical
vestment.

TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To place (authority, property, or rights, for
example) in the control of a person or group, especially to give
someone an immediate right to present or future possession or
enjoyment of (an estate, for example). Used with in: vested his estate
in his daughter. 2. To invest or endow (a person or group) with
something, such as power or rights. Used with with: vested the council
with broad powers; vests its employees with full pension rights after
five years of service. 3. To clothe or robe, as in ecclesiastical
vestments.

ETYMOLOGY: French veste, robe, from Italian vesta, from Latin vestis,
garment."

Like "vestment" and "divestiture". Does anyone know if 'vestige' is
related? Elizabeth Barber (WOMEN'S WORK: THE FIRST 20,000 YEARS)
thinks that this Proto-Indo-European word for any garment might be
related to the name of the hearth goddess Vesta, both coming from some
word for warmth. The American Heritage Dictionary doesn't agree,
assigning 'vest' to 'wes2' meaning 'to wear' and 'Vesta' to 'wes1"
meaning 'to dwell'.

I love words!

<< As for pinafores, the term was formerly used for a frilly apron
with a sort of bib in front, worn by little girls (and Raggedy Ann
dolls) from the nineteenth century until the early 1950s to protect
their dresses from spills: >>

Yes, I was going to reply to Kathryn's
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/25135 :

<< Apparently a pinafore is also an apron that has a top rather than
just covering from the waist down (that's what my father says anyway,
personally I'd just call it an apron) >>

by saying that, to me, the difference between (1) a pinafore and (2)
an apron with a top, is that a pinafore has ruffles.

David wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/25164 :

<< I'm puzzled over usage of 'haricot beans'. Image Googling gives
this British site:
http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/detail/101432.html
which corresponds to my expectations; and this Russian site:
http://www.gavrish.ru/products/haricotbeans_en.html
which looks like what Rita describes but not at all like haricot
beans as I know them. So what's American usage? Are they pale and
round or long and green? >>

Oh, my! This British-American difference is completely news to me! The
American haricot beans, string beans, green beans, are long and green
like the ones on the Russian site. I assume that the green bean is
equivalent to a pea-pod and the very small, pale, but fleshy seeds
inside it are equivalent to peas, from which I further assume that
most beans come in pods and are equivalent to peas. And the ones in
the British picture are the pea kind not the pod kind.

(pause to look in http://www.onelook.com/index.html ) Not only are you
absolutely right, but look what I found:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/48/H0064800.html
"NOUN: The edible pod or seed of any of several beans, especially the
kidney bean. 
ETYMOLOGY: French, possibly alteration (influenced by French haricot,
stew) of Nahuatl ayacotli."

http://www.bartleby.com/61/48/H0064850.html
"NOUN: A highly seasoned mutton or lamb stew with vegetables.
ETYMOLOGY: French, from Old French hericot, hericoq, possibly from
harigoter, to cut into pieces, probably of Germanic origin."







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