In praise of … clouts | Editorial

It's odd that argument lingers over the May question when no one disputes clout, a word with many possible meaningsHalfway through May, and temperatures are frozen in single figures. Definitely not a moment to be casting a clout, and if you belong to the rump of opinion that thinks the May in question is the hawthorn flower, well that's not out yet either. But it's odd that argument lingers over the May question when no one disputes clout, a word with many possible meanings in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, none of them very satisfactory in the context of the old saw about casting them. Or it. Shakespeare put clouts in his shoes to avoid slipping in the mud, Chaucer's merchant described something being rente al to clouts, a contemporary washed the dishes with them, and a king of clouts was a straw man. Later the word came to mean a handkerchief or a length of cloth holding a certain number of pins or needles. None would be much help in keeping warm in the recent miserable weather. Best keep it on, all the same.LanguageLinguisticsguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds    

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - May 15, 2013 Category: Science Tags: The Guardian Linguistics Language Editorials Comment is free Source Type: news