| 词组 | drapes, draperies |
| 释义 | drapes, draperies A food and restaurant critic for the New York Times and the cartoonist of the strip "Garfield" are taken to task by Kilpatrick 1984 for using the noun drapes. "Drape isn't a noun," says Kilpatrick. "It's a verb." Simon 1980 also wrinkles his nose at the word, but his criticism has a social rather than a grammatical basis. These are brave men, however, apparently the first males ever to venture into this subject, hitherto an exclusively female domain. The only earlier comment that we have found in a usage book is in Margaret Nicholson 1957. The subject seems to have originated with Emily Post, about 1927. Post's approach is straightforward: Never say drapes; say "curtains, or, if necessary, draperies. " The OED Supplement sheds interesting light on this issue. The earliest citations for drapes, which is labeled North American, are from the catalogs of Montgomery Ward and Sears and Roebuck. Now, we may safely assume that Emily Post's window hangings were not ordered from a catalog, and—if the word's being a crass Americanism rather than a cultured Briticism weren't enough to put her off it—she would certainly not use a catalog's word for them. No, that's for Miss Noback-ground: "Say, Murree, the new drapes in my home are dandy" (1945 edition). Post's substitutes, curtains and draperies, deserve brief comment. Curtains has long been in use on both sides of the Atlantic. Her qualifying words, "or, if necessary," may represent tacit recognition of the fact that in America curtains and drapes or draperies often designate somewhat different hangings. Draperies, interestingly enough, is also identified as North American in the OED Supplement. Its first citation is from an 1895 Montgomery Ward catalog. Nicholson appears to have originated the dictum, repeated by Kilpatrick, that drape is properly a verb and that the noun is drapery. We have already noted that the plural use of both drape and drapery is North American and dates from around the turn of the century. Drape as a verb goes back to the 15th century in obsolete senses; it goes back only to 1847 in reference to cloth. Drapery in reference to cloth dates from 1686. Drape as a noun relating to cloth or drapery dates back to 1611, and is thus the oldest of the three. The objection to it is (excuse the pun) made from whole cloth. Beginning with Post, disapproval of drapes has occasionally been recorded in the press and in other printed sources, and women have from time to time written to this company to protest the word's appearance in the dictionary. One of the earlier complaints appeared in the Saturday Review in April 1928. The writer found the use of drapes "ghastly"; however, the word was being used in reference to the theater, in which it is a technical term. Drapes is also a technical term in the operating room, where the patient to be operated on is covered with sterile drapes. The identification of drapes as North American seems accurate, although there are signs it is beginning to be used in Britain. Sellers 1975 complains that the Americanism is creeping into British use, and the OED Supplement has a 1970 British citation. All of our evidence is U.S. and Canadian. Here are a few examples: • Some of the windows were masked by long cretonne drapes —Raymond Chandler, The Simple Art of Murder, 1950 • ... on the West Coast families drew the drapes across their bedroom windows —Pierre Salinger, On Instructions of My Government, 1971 • ... the new gimmicks: the green printed drapes, pink-and-green waiter and waitress outfits —Linda Wolfe, New York, 10 Jan. 1972 • ... a shabby brownstone with dark-green shades and sleazy drapes at the windows —Betty Ferm, Cosmopolitan, May 1974 We must conclude that there is no linguistic reason for choosing between drapes and draperies. Both are of the same plebeian North American origin and the same age, and are equally well established. If you have always used one instead of the other, by all means you should continue to do so. If you have no fixed preference, draperies is the safer choice. |
| 随便看 |
|
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。