2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PollyWollyDoodle

‘Tank top’?  Another alternative name

Laura_Elsewhere

PollyWollyDoodle said:

‘Tank top’?  Another alternative name

I had that one! There were so many, it got lost in the list...   Second, after "I call them slipovers, but also..."  

" a heck of a lot of names- I call them slipovers, but also tank tops, vests, popovers (to me those are little round Yorkshire puddings eaten hot with Golden syrup for pudding!), or just a sleeveless pullover, sleeveless jumper (and a jumper is a skirt with braces or bib-and-braces in the States iirc), sleeveless sweater, etc., etc., etc...! "

PollyWollyDoodle

Oh sorry Laura, missed it - that’s what I’d have called them in the 70s

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

who knew you can add navy blue to chestnut?!?! 

I like brown with blue - I'm surprised we don't see it more often because it really works - light blue and mid brown, beige and dark navy, mid brown with mid blue etc.

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

PipneyJane said:

Those vests look lovely @Laura_Elsewhere.  

- Pip

Thankyou- I'm smiling at 'vests', you Aussie, you! To me, "vests" are underwear or American for a men's button-up waistcoat  
Mind you, these things do have a heck of a lot of names- I call them slipovers, but also tank tops, vests, popovers (to me those are little round Yorkshire puddings eaten hot with Golden syrup for pudding!), or just a sleeveless pullover, sleeveless jumper (and a jumper is a skirt with braces or bib-and-braces in the States iirc), sleeveless sweater, etc., etc., etc...! 

Is it only English or do all languages like having multiple names for one thing?! 

To Australians those underwear “vests” are singlets.  

I think the French have multiple names for things too.  For instance, there are two words for friend:  ami and copain.  I’ve not yet figured out the difference and when/why you’d choose to use copain instead of ami.  

- Pip

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

I think the French have multiple names for things too.  For instance, there are two words for friend:  ami and copain.  I’ve not yet figured out the difference and when/why you’d choose to use copain instead of ami.  

- Pip

I googled - there doesn't seem to be a hard and fast definition of the difference but 'copain' can refer to a more romantic relationship, see also 'petit ami'. I wonder whether it's one of those where different generations use it slightly differently?

As for those vest-type things, I've elected to think of them as 'pullovers', though normally a pullover is another word for a jumper or sweater, and I think the American understanding of a jumper is different though I can't think how at this time of the morning.

PollyWollyDoodle

I always understood that ‘copain’ was more of a slang term like ‘pal’ or ‘mate’ while ‘ami’ means friend. But I learned French forty years ago so no doubt things have moved on!  

dND

PipneyJane said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

PipneyJane said:

Those vests look lovely @Laura_Elsewhere.  

- Pip

Thankyou- I'm smiling at 'vests', you Aussie, you! To me, "vests" are underwear or American for a men's button-up waistcoat  
Mind you, these things do have a heck of a lot of names- I call them slipovers, but also tank tops, vests, popovers (to me those are little round Yorkshire puddings eaten hot with Golden syrup for pudding!), or just a sleeveless pullover, sleeveless jumper (and a jumper is a skirt with braces or bib-and-braces in the States iirc), sleeveless sweater, etc., etc., etc...! 

Is it only English or do all languages like having multiple names for one thing?! 

To Australians those underwear “vests” are singlets.  

I think the French have multiple names for things too.  For instance, there are two words for friend:  ami and copain.  I’ve not yet figured out the difference and when/why you’d choose to use copain instead of ami.  

- Pip

Not exclusive but often copain is used for a partner as well as a friend.  The nuances of the French language never quite happened for me. 😁

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

I always understood that ‘copain’ was more of a slang term like ‘pal’ or ‘mate’ while ‘ami’ means friend. But I learned French forty years ago so no doubt things have moved on!  

That makes more sense, @PollyWollyDoodle, particularly as I’ve seen it refer to classmates.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

I always had the impression that it wasn't so much that French has multiple words for the same thing as that our translation lumps things together- like the two words for "to know", connaitre and savoir- they mean different kinds of knowing in French but they are generally translated as the same word in English which confuses everything...! 

Our brave comrades, of course, in the Résistance, are often fluent in English! I have been reading this extraordinary book about a teacher my Mum remembers, as his Boys' Grammar school and her girls' one had Shakespeare reading evenings together and some other joint literary events, and she has vivid memories of Harry Rée in his post-SOE years. 
https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300259179/a-schoolmasters-war/