Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1919 — Origin of Household Words. [ARTICLE]

Origin of Household Words.

Anyone interested in the history of dress might find amusement for many an idle hour simply Id searching out the meanings of many of the words used by dressmakers and haberdashers. Take the simple word corset. You will find that it is h diminutive of “corse.” or body—a word which we still have in corpse and corps. And it was early used in the plural, as we do now. first to indicate an entire garment, and then merely the stay portion of such a garment. Similarly “bodice,” which has recently been revived as a substitute for the overworked “waist,,” is merely a plural for body, the term originally being “a pair of bodies.”