일의 낱말
antimacassar: a protective or decorative cloth over the back of a chair
(um, this word wins life. here is weird words' explanation:
To find the inspiration for this term, we must go back to the very start of the nineteenth century and to Mr Rowland of Hatton Garden in London, who invented what the Oxford English Dictionary describes as “an unguent for the hair”. He claimed it was based on sweet oils imported from Macassar or Makassar, a seaport on the island of Celebes (now called Sulawesi) in what is now Indonesia, which was renamed Ujung Pandang in the 1970s but which has now been restored to its old name. (His unguent was basically palm oil with some additions, but may never have been anywhere near Macassar.) Macassar oil was sold in deeply embossed square glass bottles and was promoted in terms as extravagant as any of the period, as here in the Edinburgh Advertiser of June 1812:
MRS. RAEBURN, NORTH BRIDGE, Has just received A FRESH supply of that beautiful production, MACASSAR OIL, for the HAIR, a preparation that surpasses all others for eradicating all impurities of the Hair, and increasing its growth where it has been bald for years; strengthening the curl, and imparting a beautiful gloss and scent; in fine, rendering the hair of ladies, gentlemen, and children inexpressibly attracting. View Rowland’s Essay on the Hair. This inestimable Oil has also received the august patronage of their Royal Highnesses the Princess of WALES and Duke of Sussex, and a great number of the nobility.
The essay, by the way, had been written in 1809 by Rowland’s son: objectivity in advertising wasn’t their goal. Among the nobility using the product was Lord Byron, who mentions it when speaking witheringly of his wife in his Don Juan of 1819:
In Virtues nothing earthly could surpass her
Save thine “incomparable Oil”, Macassar!
And while we’re on literary associations, it’s also mentioned in the White Knight’s poem in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.
The fashion for oiled hair became so widespread that in desperation housewives began to cover the backs of their chairs and sofas with washable cloths to preserve the fabric coverings from being spoilt. Around 1850, these started to be known as antimacassars.
They came to have elaborate patterns, often in matching sets for the various items of parlour furniture; they were either made at home using a variety of techniques such as crochet or tatting, or bought from shops. By the beginning of the twentieth century, they had become so associated in peoples’ minds with the Victorian period that the word briefly became a figurative term for it.
so there you have it.)
(um, this word wins life. here is weird words' explanation:
To find the inspiration for this term, we must go back to the very start of the nineteenth century and to Mr Rowland of Hatton Garden in London, who invented what the Oxford English Dictionary describes as “an unguent for the hair”. He claimed it was based on sweet oils imported from Macassar or Makassar, a seaport on the island of Celebes (now called Sulawesi) in what is now Indonesia, which was renamed Ujung Pandang in the 1970s but which has now been restored to its old name. (His unguent was basically palm oil with some additions, but may never have been anywhere near Macassar.) Macassar oil was sold in deeply embossed square glass bottles and was promoted in terms as extravagant as any of the period, as here in the Edinburgh Advertiser of June 1812:
MRS. RAEBURN, NORTH BRIDGE, Has just received A FRESH supply of that beautiful production, MACASSAR OIL, for the HAIR, a preparation that surpasses all others for eradicating all impurities of the Hair, and increasing its growth where it has been bald for years; strengthening the curl, and imparting a beautiful gloss and scent; in fine, rendering the hair of ladies, gentlemen, and children inexpressibly attracting. View Rowland’s Essay on the Hair. This inestimable Oil has also received the august patronage of their Royal Highnesses the Princess of WALES and Duke of Sussex, and a great number of the nobility.
The essay, by the way, had been written in 1809 by Rowland’s son: objectivity in advertising wasn’t their goal. Among the nobility using the product was Lord Byron, who mentions it when speaking witheringly of his wife in his Don Juan of 1819:
In Virtues nothing earthly could surpass her
Save thine “incomparable Oil”, Macassar!
And while we’re on literary associations, it’s also mentioned in the White Knight’s poem in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.
The fashion for oiled hair became so widespread that in desperation housewives began to cover the backs of their chairs and sofas with washable cloths to preserve the fabric coverings from being spoilt. Around 1850, these started to be known as antimacassars.
They came to have elaborate patterns, often in matching sets for the various items of parlour furniture; they were either made at home using a variety of techniques such as crochet or tatting, or bought from shops. By the beginning of the twentieth century, they had become so associated in peoples’ minds with the Victorian period that the word briefly became a figurative term for it.
so there you have it.)