A Word With You
June 14th, 2010
Antimacassar
This is a word that immediately transports me to drawing rooms and murder mysteries and a cast of characters gathered to discover whodunit. I’m willing to bet that few of my readers have even heard of this word but if they’ve ever read an Agatha Christie or watched an old Sherlock Holmes movie they would have seen more than a few antimacassars strewn about on the period-piece furnishings.
I love a word that comes with its own mood and setting.
an·ti·ma·cas·sar
ˌæn tɪ məˈkæs ərShow Spelled[an-ti-muh-kas-er] Show IPA
–noun
a small covering, usually ornamental, placed on the backs and arms of upholstered furniture to prevent wear or soiling; a tidy.
Origin:
1850–55; anti- + Macassar (oil)
The word origin really tells the tale. Antimacassars are protective coverings thrown over the back of a chair or the head or cushions of a sofa, coined 1852, from anti- + macassar oil, imported hair tonic from Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The cloth was laid to protect chair and sofa fabric from people leaning their oily heads back against it. The original antimacassars were made of stiff white crochet-work, but later soft, coloured materials, such as embroidered wools or silks, were used. In the 20th century, the use of antimacassars largely died out. Thank goodness for ooze-proof hair gel, huh?
Grammar Punk Sentence: M A 2
Olive eyed the rummage sale items with skepticism; it was obvious someone’s old auntie had died and left a houseful of “treasures” judging by the number of tchotchkes and antimacassars up for sale.
Give it a try. Write a sentence or three that contains 2 words with the letters M and A and also includes the word antimacassar. Better yet, write a cool sentence using a colloquialism of your choice.