Waistcoat or Vest?

[Nathan]

My dad always called an undershirt a "semmit" but my contemporaries preferred the more repugnant term, "wife beater".

[TheOfficialBren]

My dad always called an undershirt a "semmit" but my contemporaries preferred the more repugnant term, "wife beater".

The same shirt is called a "wife beater," a "tank top," an "a-shirt," and an "undershirt" around town.

[MacLowlife]

The same shirt is called a "wife beater," a "tank top," an "a-shirt," and an "undershirt" around town.

And back to "Singlet"... sometimes.

In French, I believe a suit coat or sportcoat is a Veste and the thing without sleeves is a Gilet.

[rmccool]

Well now, is it honour or honor? bonnet or hood? or is it petrol or gasoline? How about lorrie or truck? We Americans surely don,t speak the Queen,s English do we? I think not! I always thought the parish priest put on his vestments after his cassock! Best regards Mattie someone in Edinburgh asked my curly red headed daughter what part of Scotland she was from and she answered from across the "pond".

Well, actually, some of us don't "speak English" at all... we "talk Southern."

[TheOfficialBren]

And back to "Singlet"... sometimes.

In French, I believe a suit coat or sportcoat is a Veste and the thing without sleeves is a Gilet.

But a singlet is a very specific garment (often found in wrestling). It is (basically) the 'tank top' combined with briefs of some sort or other. It's also seen as men's underwear but I've actually only seen the wrestler's variety rather than the underwear variety.

As an aside, my grandfather's generation wouldn't be caught dead out of the home in a t-shirt...muchless a tank top! They were considered underwear and according to convention of the period.

[MacLowlife]

And back to "Singlet"... sometimes.

In French, I believe a suit coat or sportcoat is a Veste and the thing without sleeves is a Gilet.

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/catpage-MRTOP.html

http://www.yomommaruns.com/2012/03/w...d-singlet.html
http://www.christianrunners.org/crmerchandise.html

I think it depends on your sport- and where you live...

[OC Richard]

I mentioned the expression "our purple patch" meaning in the British sense, a time of our greatest success.

Yes that's one of the few hundred English sporting terms in the glossary I've been compiling!

It's a long list of terms that English football presenters regularly use which are incomprehensible to an American who doesn't happen to follow English football.

Many defy direct translation because the notion the word denotes doesn't exist in our sports, for example

English draw = US tie

English tie (as in "FA Cup tie") = no US equivalent; the closest is matchup

Purple patch! Sixes and sevens! Dummies and nutmegs! It goes on and on.

[Elf]

Don't forget standardisation/ standardization brought about by the internet and the tendency of some folk to want to sound like folk from elsewhere.

On the one hand guilty. I just used the other spelling of a word in another thread out of deference to our Commonwealth friends. (the good reason). On the other hand, I love to see spell check light up. (the real reason). I once transcribed Burns lyrics. Oh the sea of spell check red! My favorite pet peeve is "an" before a non-aspirated "h" which spell check always wants to change to "a."

In the end if the other individual understands, then language has fulfilled its mission. (and by he way, I let spell check change my guessed-at spellings a few times in this post alone)

[Hopper250]

I'll through a wrench in this original discussion by saying I always new vests with one exception, when it was double-breasted it was a waistcoat.

[artificer]

I'll through a wrench in this original discussion by saying I always new vests with one exception, when it was double-breasted it was a waistcoat.

You mean a spanner?



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