FOR THE GIRLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 11 April 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR THE GIRLS.

the cardigan jacket. PEOPLE WHO GIVE THEIR NAMES TO THINGS. Dear Girls, — How comfy it is, now Easter i« over and winter almost at our doors, ' to snuggle into our pretty gay-coloured cardigan. ' Yet few people could tell you off hand how this useful winter article came by its name. When the garment was first invented, or at all events, first used by an earl of Cardigan, it was called a cardigan waistcoat. As it became more and more popular, it was known as a cardigan" jacket; no* it is just a "cardigan," rather like a tadpole losing its tail and becoming a frog. The last year or two the "cardigan" seems to have a rival in the "lumber jacket," a name that surely must have come from America. The "lumber jacket" is really an abbreviated "cardigan coming only to the waist and harking back to the original "cardigan waistcoat." It will be interesting to« note as the seasons pass which of the two names will survive. The Earl of Spencer invented another useful article, the < "spencer," a light woollen jacket worn underneath one's outer garments. Other names have become familiar for useful inventions, such as mackintosh, taking its name from the Scotsman who invented it. The derringer pistol commemorates the name of an ingenious American gunsmith. Then the varied and delicious sandwich that we all enjoy so much; indeed, , what would a picnic be without it? ' We owe'this invention to Lord Sandwich, who was the keenest of card players and hated to leave the card table for a meal, so he had his food brought to him in this convenient form. Again, in the agricultural world, I expect many Budget readers who live on farms will have heard of "Timothy" grass, which is largely used in New Zealand. By some queer twist of word-making this grass has been given the Christian name of the man who first urged its use in farming, a Mr. Timothy Hansen. The word is still in progress, and as yet is incomplete, for the farmer sows "timothy" in his paddocks, but the agricultural writer still advises the use of Timothy grass. Namies of scientists, discoverers and inventors are frequently given to many things, but earls seem to have run a close race with them for a number of places in immortalised words. The short coat of one is coupled with the sandwich in the old rhyme:— J . Two noble earls, whom, if I quote, t Some folks might call me sinner; f i The one invented half a coat, The other half a dinner.