Draper`s dictionary

The Drapers Dictionary by William Beck was a late 19th century publication (1886?) and was possibly published by The Warehousemen and Drapers Journal, London. There's no sign of a copy on sale in the usual places, maybe your local library can help?

Thank you Somebody suggested to me it has interesting, descriptions about Names of various cloths... thus i am interested. I don`t think my loacl library will have such a book. By the way did you ever see the Arms [ Heraldry ] of the Clothworkers , i Read that the Arms given to the Drapers in 1438 , was the First ever Arms given to a proffesion . [occupational heraldry] ... I also read a lot about the drapers in Social history of England. mirjam

Well hopefully if you find a copy, you will learn there is no such thing as a SCOTTISH SKIRT ! (Not when referring to a KILT)

Lucretia Burgia google Scotish skirt and YOU will be Ever soooooo surprised ,,,, mirjam

Mirjum - I did and sure I see 'tartan skirts' - they are not Scottish skirts, nor are they kilts. They are simply skirts made of tartan material and not intended to be kilts.

I think you will be very surprised if you google Bet El - not much there, no mention of it being Bethel. I see there is a controversial settlement called Bet El but that's about it. It, Bet El, put me in mind of the ever present betel juice of some Asian countries that stains everything.

Doesn't mean it proper usage....

Now, I know a bit about that too! Bet el juice, I mean! I once had a boyfriend who came from Papua New Guinea and he chewed betel nuts. What you do is: fold up a bit of leaf with a pinch of powdered lime in it a bet el nut which you have prepared earlier. Fold the leaf over the lime and the nut and stick the lot in your mouth and chew like mad. After a very short time, your whole mouth and teeth will look as though you've drunk blood! It's quite awful to watch, but apparently quite pleasant to do. And no, I didn't 'do'. Couldn't bring meself to.

People from PNG who chew nuts all the time have very short, stumpy teeth because of the abrasive effect of the lime. It grinds their teeth quite away! =:-0

If you live near a university or college, the libraries there might be able to help you. They can often borrow from other institutions and archives around the world, and might be able to to track it down for you.

Louisa

"lucretia borgia" wrote

As Bruce pointed out (how did such a rational person get in here!!!) it was published in London, so a bit of cultural misinformation might have snuck in.

Dawne

As a life-long fan of the Goon Show and of Beachcomber I think that's the first time anyone ever called me rational. Thank you Dawne, I shall print out your email and have it framed

So, I googled Scottish skirt, and I have to say that I am surprised. In the first page, there was not a single incidence of a knowledgable site using the term. As a librarian, I would have thought you learned to check your sources better than that. Thus, my surprise.

Elizabeth

So be inventive and look at other search places like Yahoo etc..... mirjam

"Kilt" is a word in the English language. The equivalent of "Scottish skirt" in another language is probably the only way to describe a kilt when the other language does not have an exactly equivalent word or phrase. Thus "Scottish skirt" would be the _literal_ translation from the another language into English. Experienced translaters would amend this literal translation into the word "kilt". I searched for "Scottish skirt" using Web Ferret which searches using AltaVista, AOL, Ask.com, Business.com, FindWhat, HotBot, Kanoodle, LookSmart, Lycos, Moreover, MSN, OpenDir, Sprinks, Teoma, Wisenut and Yahoo. However, there seemed to be no definitive answers although (or ) seemed the best answer to "what is a Scottish skirt?"