OT: City Names

From: Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com <(Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com)>
Date: Tue Apr 20 12:20:19 1999

>> Well I was at an American run management course last year in Newcastle. One
>> of the (male) attendees made the comment that he was cold and that he was
>> going to get a jumper. This caused a hysterical reaction by one of the
>> female presenters - apparently from her part of the USA a jumper is a dress!
>
> Farzino, a "jumper" is a dress anywhere in the US, specifically a
> dress of a style rarely worn once puberty kicks in. Possibly the
> standardisation of that nomenclature resulted from the fact that
> that's what was used in the old Sears-Roebuck catalogs that were
> distributed nationwide.


That sounds like what I would call a "pinnafore dress". In the UK a Jumper is
usually a sweater. The only exception I have met was in the _Manual of
Seamanship_, published by the Admiralty in (I think) 1938, where it lists the
kit issued to sailors, with illustrations. There the sweater is called a
"Jersey", and "Jumper" refers to something resembling a football shirt. Well,
the top half of a sailor suit anyway :-)

Philip.
Received on Tue Apr 20 1999 - 12:20:19 BST