Monday, September 17, 2007

Linsey-woolsey

Today's word at Anu Garg's A.Word.A.Day brought back a bit of my elementary-school study of New York City history. I remember New Amsterdam. I remember Peter Stuyvesant and his wooden leg. And I remember linsey-woolsey. Everyone must have been wearing it back then:

linsey-woolsey (LIN-zee WOOL-zee) noun

1. A strong, coarse fabric of wool and cotton.

2. An incongruous mix.

[From Middle English linsey (linen, or from Lindsey, a village in Suffolk, UK) + woolsey (a rhyming compound of wool).]

comments: 3

Anonymous said...

Though not spelled the same way, the homonymous Lindsay Woolsey is also the name of a character in the movie Auntie Mame, a publisher friend and eventual second husband of Mame Dennis Burnside.

Anonymous said...

I mean homophonous.

Michael Leddy said...

Thanks, Norman. Homonymous sent me to Merriam-Webster online, where I found

1 : AMBIGUOUS
2 : having the same designation
3 : of, relating to, or being homonyms

A new word to me.