Fulling gum—a substance used for preparing warps for weaving.
Fur beaver—a long-napt cloth imitating fur.
Fur felt—hatter’s term for f. (and hats thereof) made from the fur of nutria, beaver, coney or other fur-bearing animals.
Fur seal—the “sealskin de luxe”, being of much finer texture than wool s. and correspondingly more valuable. Found in Alaska, Shetland Islands, Lobos Island, etc., the former being of the most uniform excellence. The hide of this variety is seldom, if ever, used for leather.
Furbelow—(1) a plaited or puckered flounce; (2) broadly, redundant or superfluos finery or ornament.
Furrier—(1) a dealer in or maker of fur goods and garments; (2) a fur dresser.
Furrier’s knife—a flat piece of steel, having the general outlines of a rhomb, one edge of which is sharpened, the opposite edge or top being concaved to form a handle.
Furs—familiar term for fur outergarments.
Fuscous—dusky; grayish brown, tawny.
Fussy—fancy, effeminate, meretricious.
Fustian—(1) formerly a kind of stout cloth made of cotton and flax; (2) now a coarse twilled linen or cotton fabric; (3) corduroy and similar fabrics are also so-called.
G
G-string—an aboriginal modesty-bit.
Gabardine—a cloak-like garment worn by Russian Jews; usually made of black cloth, silk or moire; it is buttoned down front to waist, whence it hangs to the ankles.
Gabardine—a close-woven, fine twilled waterproof cotton cloth for sporting and motor wear. Probably a blind name.
Gag—investiture for the mouth, of any sufficient model, style, or material, worn at discretion when the alternativ might be hurtful, usually applied by burglars who object to raucous cacophony.
Gaiter—(1) a cloth or leather covering for the leg or ankle; a spatterdash or overgaiter; (2) a shoe without opening, but elastic gores at the sides. See Congress g.
Gaiter bottoms—tailoring term for trousers cut snug at the ankle and extending out covering the instep with strap fastening beneath the foot.
Gaiter trousers—just described (vs).
Galashiels—a town in Scotland famous for its tweeds known by that name.
Galatea—(1) a striped worsted suiting faintly suggestiv of Bedford cord; (2) a stout striped cotton fabric, used for shirts, pinafores, etc.
Gallant—(1) a (good or bad) man who pays court or markt attention to women; (2) a beau; (3) a man of showy or ostentatious attire.
Galligaskins—(1) wide hose or trousers formerly worn by seamen; (2) leather leggings. See Venetians.
Galloon—general term for various kinds of worsted, silk or tinsel lace or decorativ braid used on uniforms, etc.
Galloon-gallant—contemptuous for an over-decorated fop.
Galloway—a breed of cattle raised in Scotland, noted for the softness and excellence of their glossy black hair; the skins are used for fur coats, lap robes, etc.
Gallows—an early name for what we now call suspenders, modernly corrupted to “galluses”.
Galluses—suspenders. See Gallows.
Gambados—boot-like leathers, resembling leggings or spatterdashes, attacht to a saddle, protecting the feet and serving as stirrups.
Gambeson—an old-time (’way back) coat of leather or cloth, stuft and quilted, worn defensivly.
Gambroon—a twilled cloth of worsted-and-cotton or linen-and-cotton, used for summer trousers; also a twilled linen lining material.
Game bag—similar to an ammunition b., but with ventilating holes.
Gams—slang for legs, and by extension, trousers.
Gants—French for gloves.
Gape—a yawning or divergence, as of coat tails spreading apart, or of coat collar standing out and away from the neck.
Garb—one’s dress in its entirety; costume; style or peculiarity of apparel, as clerical g.
G. A. R. uniform—a plain blue sack suit, the coat either single or double-breasted, with brass buttons, and commonly a black slouch hat, with cord and tassels and gilt badge.
Garibaldi—a loose blouse waist resembling those worn by the soldiers of Garibaldi, the Italian patriot.
Garmenture—a generic name for dress.
Garner’s—trade diminutiv for the fine shirting percales manufactured by Garner & Co., Reading, Pa., and Pleasant Valley, N.Y.
Garnetted—trade term for fabrics containing garnetted or made over carded yarns. Garnetted worsteds, for illustration, are not entitled to the designation “pure worsted”. See Garnetting.
Garnetting—the process of separating clippings, waste, etc., into new spinning fibers, resulting in carded yarns, usually mixt with good fibers, as garnetted worsted with wool, etc.
Garrison pocket—the right hip p.
Garrison shoes—(army) for enlisted men: of russet calf, Blucher style.
Garter ring—a gold finger r. made in imitation of a strap buckled in a circle.
Garter webbing—a narrow, elastic textil band or ribbon, having strips of India rubber as part of its warp; elastic w. (qv).
Garters—commonly, elastic bands capable of being elongated and adjusted ad libitum, worn around the lower extremities of one’s locomotiv members for maintaining the proper position and required altitude for the habiliments of the tibia.
Garters—nautical slang for leg irons.
Gas iron—a tailor’s smoothing or pressing i., heated by internal gas jets.
Gasoline iron—a tailor’s i. heated within by means of a gasoline flame, the fluid being contained in a tank affixt to the outside.
Gassing—a finishing process in cotton cloth manufacturing; removing the fuzz by singeing.
Gauche—in ill taste, awkward.
Gauntlet—a glove with wide cuffs attacht, usually stiff, covering the coat sleeves, to protect from dust and wind in driving; originally a mailed covering for the hand and wrist, often with offensiv armor.
Gauze—any light open-woven cotton, silk or wool material.
Gauze weaving—a method in which the warp threads are more or less intertwined among themselves, achieving light, open texturs and many fanciful or lacy combinations; if plain it is usually called leno.
Gem—any precious stone, particularly when cut and set ready for wearing.
Gem peg—a rest for the g. stick (qv) in g. cutting.
Gem stick—a rod, on the end of which a g. is cemented whilst being cut.
Gem stone—general term given to minerals suitable for cutting, as a g.
Gemel ring—a r. formed of 2 or more rings; a puzzle r.
Genapping—a process in woolen manufacture by which the free fuzz or loose fiber known as “nap” is removed from woolen yarn by singeing to make it suitable for certain kinds of cloth.
General’s uniform—see Full dress, Dress u., White u., Service u. Also see variants.
Geneva gown—a clergyman’s full g. of black silk or wool stuff, made with an inner cassock-front, meeting in a sort of military collar, with white banks at the neck, and buttoning all the way down the front.
Genoese velvet—a rich patterned silk v., sometimes interwoven with gold thread.
Gent—not a gentleman.
Gent’s furnisher—the vulgar general title of a very respectable business.
Genteel—les bourgeois gentilhommes.
German sock—a knitted s. of extra heavy wool, with buckled tops or with canvas legging tops reaching to the knee, for wear with arctics or heavy shoes.
Get up—a scheme of costume; the way you are drest.
Gew-gaw—any flashy, useless ornament.
Ghaba—a long, loose flowing coatlike garment worn by the merchant class in Persia; is double-breasted, lapping over and fastening with 2 buttons, while, about the waist, a shawl is wound several times, knotted and the ends tuckt out of sight.
Gift-of-gab—an eccentricity of salesmen.
Gig—a machine for raising a nap on cloth by passing it over rotating cylinders armed with teasels. Compare Slubbing machine.
Gigging—giving a nap to woolen cloths, such as broadcloths, beaver, chinchilla, melton, etc.
Giller—a horsehair fishing line.
Gilling—a step in the process of combing worsted yarns; bringing the fibers level and parallel into a uniform strand.
Gilt button—brass.
Gimmal ring—see Gemel r.
Gimp buttonhole—made as described under b. making, but employing very coarse silk twist, and taking long, regular stitches over a heavy cord. Contrast Satin b. h.
Gingerbread—over-fancy, glaring, loud, fussy, insubstantial.
Gingham—a plain-woven reversible cotton fabric, loom-patterned in simple checks, stripes and plaids.
Gingham—vernacular for a large family umbrella.
Ginning—a step in the process of preparing cotton for weaving; separating, mechanically, the seeds from the fiber.
Girdle—the circumferential rim of a diamond or other precious stone; the line of juncture of the upper and lower pyramids. See Brilliant cutting.
Glace—glove trade term, meaning polisht or drest kid (or other) leather.
Glad rags—evening dress clothes; frock coats; new or good clothes, generally.
Glasses—generality for eye g. or spectacles.
Glaze—a sizing or high finish applied to certain fabrics, as sleeve linings, hat trimmings, cheap underwear trimmings, etc. See Glazing, Sizing and Washable.
Glazed kid—trade term for kid leather finisht with a high polish, in contradistinction to dull k., which has a flat or dull appearance. See Chrome k.
Glazing—a glossing or calendering process effected by steam-heated steel rollers.
Glengarry—a cape overcoat; now known as Inverness (qv).
Glengarry—a Scotch cap.
Glims—cant for spectacles. (British).
Gloria—a twill woven silk and wool fabric, used largely for umbrellas.
Gloss finish—see High polish.
Glove—a leather or textil covering for the hands, having separate stalls for each finger. Anciently gloves possest considerable significance as pledges of troth and confidence, gages of battle, emblems of office, etc.—which is interesting to the searcher for curiosa, but too lengthy for this short-order book.
Glove—a wooden scraper, fastened to the workman’s hands, used in felting hats.
Glove box—a container for gloves.
Glove kid—a term used mostly by shoemakers to designate a fine, soft leather employed for the tops of fine shoes.
Glove of mail—a mailed gauntlet.
Glove stretcher—a device for stretching or “easing” gloves.
Glove tree—a wooden form in the shape of a hand for keeping gloves in condition.
Gloversville—a town in New York where nearly all the gloves made in this country are produced.
Goat—an omnivorous animal, once characteristic of Harlem and the Bronx, whose hide furnishes shoe leather and glove skins and whose pelt is made up into wild animal fur robes, etc.
Goatee—a beard or tuft, so trimmed that it falls from the chin like the beard of a goat; a fashion once very common, but now rare.
Goater—a thief’s term for dress.
Goggle-cap—a chauffeur’s c. having a front band in which goggles are affixt.
Goggles—a covering for the eyes, or also for part of the face, with glasses or lenses secured in silk gauze, leather, metal or rubber, fastened around the head with straps or wire frames and worn to exclude dust when automobiling, mining, etc.
Gold—a precious metal, bowed down to, in the representativ abstract, by all the tribes of Israel and by the also-ran; in commerce and industry made into jewelry for one’s wives and near-wives; in medicin as an alleged constituent of a celebrated cure for good fellows.
Gold filled—trade term for a compound plate of 2 sheets of g. having a sheet of baser metal between them; by extension applied to cheap jewelry made thereof.
Gold lace—l. wrought with g. or gilt thread; an ornamental or decorativ trimming fabric formed by weaving silken threads wound round with g. filaments; most used for military, naval and similar uniforms.
Gold stick—an official of the royal household of Great Britain, a colonel of the Life Guards or a captain of the gentlemen-at-arms, who bears a gilt rod on state occasions; also loosely applied to other state attendants.
Goldsmiths’ company—one of the ancient London guilds, having certain hereditary privileges, among them that of stamping or certifying all gold and silver.
Golf bag—a long, open-end b. of canvas, leather or plaid, or combinations thereof, with a sling strap, and usually with an outside pocket for balls.
Golf cap—general name for cloth caps made with a visor or peak, but without a band.
Golf cloth—see Albert c.
Golf coat—generally, a single-breasted sack c. or Norfolk jacket with a plaited fullness under the arms to allow freedom of stroke (whence name of Stroke c. sometimes given) with a belted back; more loosely, any old c. one is not afraid of soiling; once upon a recent time a gaudy thing of green or red, or with green or red trimmings.
Golf discs—small rubber knobs affixt to heels and soles of shoes for surety of footing.
Golf glove—a g. of soft leather, usually chamois, commonly made with open (hole) knuckles and to button on the top or outside of wrist; altho there are many other models.
Golf hose—heavy woolen or worsted stockings, in Scotch patterns, quite “swell” when they were costly.
Golf shoes—s. made for the use of golfers, with protruding nails or buttons on soles to prevent slipping.
Golf sleeves—trade term for neglige shirts with s. made in 2 pieces, separated and buttoning at about the hight of the elbow, the forepart being removed for freedom and comfort.
Golf stocks—any neck stock.
Golf studs—see Boot s. and G. discs.
Golf waistcoat—same as Coat sweater.
Golosh—an overshoe; formerly of wood; but modernly of rubber.
Good form—see Form.
Good middling—see Cotton classification.
Good ordinary—see Cotton classification.
Goodwood—perhaps the most fashionable race-meet in England, vieing with Ascot, but unlike the latter, being a private park, owned by the Duke of Richmond.
Goodyear stitching—a modern mechanical process of sewing together the sole and vamp of a shoe, the process commencing and concluding at the breast or back of heel. See below.
Goodyear welt—in shoemaking, meaning that the uppers and soles are secured by means of a welt sewed on the Goodyear machine, an improvement on the McKay machine. See above.
Goose—a tailor’s heaving smoothing iron, originally the kind heated on a stove or flame; so called from its handle, which somewhat resembles the neck of a goose.
Gore—a triangular piece of cloth let into a garment to widen it or eke out narrow goods; a gusset.
Gore—see Elastic g.
Gorge—that part of a coat or vest encircling the neck; where the collar, if any, is joined. Compare Opening.
Gorget—(1) an ornamental neckband, very full and broad in front, worn a century or two ago when men knew how to dress; (2) a steel throat armor.
Goring—see Elastic gore.
Gown—(1) a sack overcoat; a Chesterfield; a raincoat; (2) a clergyman’s robe; (3) a bachelor’s, doctor’s or other academic g.; (4) a night robe; (5) the slip or covering thrown over you whilst in the barber’s chair.
Gownsman—a collegian.
Grade—to arrange a scale or system of sizes for manufacturing or for buying and selling; to classify fibers, qualities, etc.
Grader—an assistant to the designer or head cutter in wholesale manufacturing houses; his duty is to take the first paper patterns designed for the season and grade them onto heavy paper for the cloth cutters to work from; these are called “block patterns”.
Grading—the making of a set of patterns, in all sizes, for any article of apparel.
Graduated tie—a t. for wear with standing shirt collars, narrowest at the middle and widening evenly to the ends.
Graft—a sticky substance much esteemed by buyers, manufacturers and politicians.
Grain leather—l. made from the hides of neat cattle, split so thin as to be suitable for same uses as goat, calf, etc., which it is made to imitate.
Grand street—a street in New York famous for its Jewish pushcart trade; being lined for many blocks with double rows of peripatetic merchants displaying almost every class of merchandise.
Grandpa’s hat—a tall “top h.” of felt or beaver fur or rough silk plush, bell shaped, reminiscent of the 40’s.
Granit—weaving term for small irregular effects produced by yarns of several colors or by an irregular arrangement of the warp and weft, comprehending any and all fabrics without specific weave for foundation; in general, any face finisht fancy weave suiting not made on a twill. (Granite.)
Grass linen—coarse, plain woven, unbleacht l., used for summer clothing.
Grass suit—a weedy thing that makes a duck hunter look like a tree to a fool bird, but like a cannibal to timid humans.
Gray cloth—undyed.
Gray cotton—unbleacht or undyed.
Grease paint—an article of theatrical makeup.
Grease spot—the badge of a slob.
Great-coat—any heavy overcoat; particularly a coachman’s skirted overcoat.
Great Scott!—an aptly named depilatory (a proprietary article) said to be composed of tallow and pitch, which, on removal, causes the beauty-seeker to say Great Scott—and then some.
Greaves—leg armor.
Grecian sack—a loose, baggy box overcoat worn about 1850–60, usually with velvet collar and cuffs and quilted satin lining.
Greeley hat—see Horace Greeley h.
Green cap—a color (of c.) that undergraduates in some of our colleges are chivalrously endeavoring to force freshmen to wear.
Green gold—g. alloyed with silver. Compare red g. and white g.
Greenback—vernacular for paper money.
Grege—raw silk as wound off the cocoons.
Gregorian—see Wig.
Gremial veil—an embroidered cloth spread over the knees of a bishop when sitting during high mass.
Grenadier cap—a tall pointed c. or head covering, properly of bearskin, worn in certain European military corps.
Grenadine—a gauzy or net-like silk fabric used for men’s neckwear and women’s dresses.
Grenadine—a species of thrown silk. See Throwing.
Grenoble—(1) a town in France famous for its many glove factories and the fine quality of kid skins raised in the surrounding neighborhood; (2) a trade diminutiv implying excellence.
Grey Breeks—the popular name for Lord Lynedoch’s 90th Regiment of Foot (1794).
Grip—a suit case; a large traveling bag.
Gripper—see Wiper.
Grogram—a stiff fabric of silk and wool or all-wool, of diagonal weave; a coarse stuff of which boat cloaks, heavy coats, etc., were once made.
Groom’s box overcoat—see Coachman’s b. o.
Groom’s frock coat—same as Coachman’s f. c., but about one inch shorter, and worn with a leather belt.
Groom’s livery—like coachman’s l. with slight modifications of detail.
Groom’s vest—a waistcoat of whipcord or corduroy with knitted or flannel sleeves attacht.
Gros de Londres—a fine weave of gros-grain silk (qv).
Grosgrain—a stout, close-woven, fine corded silk fabric, dyed in plain colors and having but little luster.
Guanaco—a South American animal of the camel family yielding a coarse, inferior hair of but little use.
Guard’s coat—a long, loose traveling overcoat of tweed or homespun, made with a whole back, held together in gathers by a cloth strap. (1907)
Guernsey—a close-fitting, knitted woolen shirt worn by sailors.
Guessfit—term coined by the compiler of this dictionary for use by tailors in derision of readymade—and now used by cheap tailors everywhere who live in glass houses themselves.
Guinea cloth—see Outing c.
Gum bucket—nautical slang for tobacco pipe.
Gum shoe—a rubber overshoe.
Gum shoe—a term for underhand transactions.
Gum stocking—see Elastic s.
Gum tissue—see Rubber t. and Buckskin.
Gums—rubber overshoes.
Gun-mouthed trousers—see Sailor’s t.
Gun-pocket—place for the arsenal.
Gunner’s uniform—(navy) see Special full dress, full d., dress, undress; (army) Full dress, Dress u., Service u., Fatigue u.; (revenue cutter service) Full dress, Service dress. See also Variations.
Gunny—see Gunnysacking.
Gunnysacking—coarse spun canvas or burlap of loose material, such as jute, used here for baling—but they use it in India for clothing among the poorer classes.
Gusset—a triangular piece of cloth, usually small, inserted into a garment to give added strength or more room; a gore.
Gutter seam—term used by collar and cuff manufacturers descriptiv of an edge s. made by folding the inner and outer plies, previously stitcht together inside out, in over the interlining, and then stitcht thru, finally, from the outside, the inner edges of the fold being generally overcast in advance of the first stitching. This s. is supposed to wear extra well, with little or no (?) liability to turn into “saw edges”.
Guy—anyone who makes a show of himself in his clothes.
Gymnasium shoe—a laced soft s. of kid or canvas, with a light elk or buff turn sole, having but little sock lining and no counter or box toe.
Gymkhana costume—anything absurd, in keeping with the farcical character of this ridiculous race or sport.
Gyves—fetters; the old word for handcuffs.
H
Haberdasher—a dealer in “men’s furnishings”.
Habit—the double-breasted dress coat of 1840–50 with very high collar.
Hackle—see Hatchel.
Hackling—a process of preparing flax fibers for spinning, arranging them smoothly and parallel.
Haik—a white drapery drawn low on the forehead and falling curtain-like about the face; it conceals the cachi (qv) and is held in place by one or more tightly fitting rings of camel’s or goat’s hair, prest down tightly on the head, and is of such dimensions as to conceal the entire figure. (Arabia.)
Hair clipper—a small hand-mowing machine for making “shavy-headed monkeys”.
Hair cutter—a patronizing sort of barber.
Hair dresser—just barber.
Hair dye—essence of vanity used to make gay bloods of old bucks.
Hair oil—maybe medicinal, but once worn to plaster down one’s hair when such was considered “the thing”; now a mark of the near-gent.
Hair seal—unpluckt s.
Haircloth—an elastic, resilient material woven of cotton or linen warp with a weft or filling of hair from the manes and tails of horses; employed as a stiffening interlining in coats, etc.
Hairline—in weaving, a narrow striped color effect on clothes of any description.
Half a warp—see Warp.
Half-and-half-bound—in tailoring, an edge finish where the braid is applied evenly, back and front covering the edge, and stitcht only along the outer edges of the braid.
Half-and-half braid—see Silk b.
Half-and-half sleeve—a coat s. of which the two parts are of nearly equal width; an old style of s. with a seam showing in front, and is seldom now used.
Half back—trade term for a class of woolens combining some of the characteristics of both thru-and-thru and backt goods.
Half blood—wool classification term. See Wool.
Half-boot—an ankle boot.
Half hose—men’s stockings; socks.
Half lined—tailoring term applied to garments that are partially lined or partially “skeleton”.
Half mitts—gloves with half length fingers and thumbs.
Half mourning—black mitigated by lavender, gray or other subdued colors or white.
Half-peg—trade term for trousers on the peg-top order, but not cut quite so full. See P. top. and Full p.
Half round—trade term for buttons shaped like a half sphere.
Half Scotch—see Scotch edge.
Half skeleton—tailoring term for coats with unlined back, the side-bodies being lined.
Half sole—repairing term for worn shoes, boots, etc.—a new s. applied to the tread or forepart of the s.
Half top pocket—set at a shorter angle from the vertical than the top p.; almost a side p.
Haling hands—heavy gloves or mittens of colonial days worn by sailors and workmen (hauling—h?).
Hall-boy’s suit—plain cloth, single- or double-breasted blouse or sack coat, with regular lapel collar (or with standing military collar if single-breasted, ornamented, if at all, on cuffs or shoulders or both; side seams of trousers trimmed to match. For clubs or hotels the jacket or blouse may have two or three diverging rows of buttons, but is closed with hooks and eyes, the collar and cuffs sometimes being of contrasting color of cloth, in which case the trousers have a narrow piping of same in the side seams. No waistcoat.
Hall mark—(British) the mark placed upon gold and silver by the Goldsmiths’ Company certifying to fineness. A slight variation each year establishes the date of production.
Halo—an aurea worn by the head of the house, clearly perceptible to himself and a few satellites, but absolutely undiscernible by anyone else of normal faculties.
Halstead street—a street in Chicago having a great number of small and cheap clothing shops (compare South s. and Baxter s.); a local synonym for cheap clothing.
Hand-fitted—tailoring term for the linings fitted into a coat one piece at a time, all the sewing being done by hand. Compare Bagged.
Hand-glasses—eye-glasses and spectacles were once so called in New York.
Hand loom—(1) a more or less primitiv or improved l. operated entirely by h. and foot, as opposed to power l.; usually found in cottages; (2) trade term for goods woven on h. looms; nearly synonymous with homespun.
Hand made—made by h. workers: distinguisht from machine made.
Hand made buttonhole—not machine made.
Hand-me-down—(1) readymade clothes; (2) second-h. clothes; from being handed down from one person to another.
Hand padded—tailoring term applied (1) to collars, lapels and coat fronts, meaning that same was made by h. instead of machine; (2) the result of making such parts by h., taking close, even, tight stitches. See next.
Hand padding—cloth, canvas, shoddy, etc., sewed together in position and ironed into shape entirely by h. for fashion’s sake or to improve fit.
Hand shaping—term generally applied to shoulders and coat fronts, indicating that the interlinings were cut and sewed together by h., being workt into shape during the latter operation, in contradistinction to such work made wholly or in part by machine (vs).
Hand-to-handmade—tailoring term meaning made entirely by operators, passing, stage by stage, from one h. to another. See Section work.
Hand-woven—(1) made on h. looms; (2) not made in a mill.
Handball gloves—g. made of padded leather, with full or cut-off fingers.
Handcuffs—steel wristlets of temporary wear occasionally seen in the lower walks of life.
Handjar—an oriental dagger or short broadsword.
Handkerchief—a square of linen, silk or cotton, with hem or selvage; plain, printed, embroidered or otherwise fancified, used for wiping the face or nose, and by country swains to waft a bye-bye to the old folks and one other as the train pulls out.
Handkerchief bosom—in shirt making a neglige shirt with a b. made of a fancy handkerchief.
Handkerchief box—a receptacle for handkerchiefs.
Handle—trade term for the “feel” of textil fabrics as indicativ of working and wearing qualities.
Handsel—(1) a gift or token of good will; a votiv offering to Luck; the first sales or earnings, bestowed upon some one; (2) earnest money on a contract.
Hanger—(1) a loop sewed into the neck of a coat-lining or waist lining of trousers for the purpose of hanging them up in a way to become shapeless; (2) a chain for the same purpose sometimes used on heavy overcoats; (3) a wooden or metal device over which coats and vests may be hung in a shape-retaining manner or trousers suspended to retain their creases.
Hanger—a short cut-and-thrust sword, curved near the point; a sort of cutlass. (17th and 18th centuries).
Hangnail—skin partially torn from its attachment near the root of a finger nail.
Hank—a bundle of two or more skeins of yarn tied together; also a single skein (qv).
Hankie—colloquial for handkerchief.
Hanselines—a kind of breeches. (Obsolete.)
Hard finisht—same as Clear f.
Hard press—same as following.
Hard prest—tailor’s term for flat p. lapels, seams, etc. Compare Soft p.
Hard rim button—a b. made over a mold, usually covered with cloth matching the garment, but protected by a rim and back of hard rubber, naturally the most durable of covered buttons.
Hare—a short-tailed, long-eared rodent of the genus Lepus, the pelt of which is an important staple of hat manufacture and is also largely used in cheap fur garments.
Hare’s combings—loose or dead hair removed in cleaning skins, and used as an adulterant in the manufacture of cheap hats.
Hare’s foot—see Rabbit f.
Harlequin check—a check pattern of three or more different colors.
Harness belt—a leather b. of horsey appearance.
Harris tweed—a men’s wear fabric made on the island of Harris, one of the smaller British isles; originally woven by very poor people on hand looms, and dyed with natural products. A number of people took an interest in the work, notably the Duchess of Sutherland, and now a considerable trade is done in the cloth, which on account of its excellent qualities and high price, is now widely imitated, the imitations being known by the same name; the genuine is easily identified by its peculiar peaty odor.
Haslock—the throat-wool of a sheep; the finest grade.
Hat—a formal covering for the head; of various models and worn at various angles of inclination; a frequently remarked characteristic is, that, altho a h. may be satisfactory any day and night, it may not be the next morning.
Hat band—a ribbon surrounding the crown.
Hat block—a mold on which hats are formed.
Hat body—an unfinished h. in any stage of its progress from the forming machine to the stiffening or napping apparatus.
Hat box—(1) a round or square carrying case for hats (one or more), usually of sole leather with fancy silk linings, etc.; (2) the same, of paper board.
Hat brush—a b. of soft bristles for cleansing and smoothing hats.
Hat case—a h. box.
Hat conformateur—see Conformateur.
Hat cover—a mackintosh or rubber covering for coachmen’s or groom’s h.
Hat furs—the principal furs used in the manufacture of hats are hare, rabbit, coney, nutria, beaver, muskrat, seal, mink, etc.
Hat honor—doffing the h.; a salute.
Hat lining—until the last 10 or 15 years nearly all men’s hats were lined, usually with satin in one or many colors, and often with white satin bearing pictures of sporting scenes, landscapes, etc., and especially portraits of ballet girls, and reproductions of paintings from life.
Hat manufacturing—see Carroting, Devil, Forming, Sizing, Stiffening, Stretching, Blocking, Finishing, Soft finishing, Curling, Flanging, etc.
Hat pad—a strip of felt slipt inside the sweatband to make a large h. fit a smaller head—and frequently removed the morning after.
Hat rack—a row of hooks to hang hats on for some other fellow to choose from.
Hat tip—the gaudy gold label pasted in the crown of a h. by manufacturers.
Hatchel—an implement for cleaning flax or hemp, usually consisting of a set of iron teeth fastened to a board, thru which the flax is drawn and broken, removing the woody fiber; a hackel.
Hatter—a seller of hats; a friend of Alice in Wonderland, but not, despite the popular impression, always mad in March.
Hauberk—a sort of coat of mail, either chain or plate, worn by the doughty warriors of the moldly past.
Haute nouveaute—high novelty.
Havelock—the light cotton cape or neck covering worn by soldiers and travelers in hot countries, hanging from a cap, behind the neck.
Haverly hat—a name given to hats (any style) for a short time during the latter half of the last century because such hats had tickets, good at any and all of Haverly’s theaters or traveling shows, entitling the owner of the h. to admission. (From J. H. Haverly, a popular minstrel “magnate”).
Haversack—(1) a soldier’s ration bag, hung from the shoulder; (2) a hunter’s leather ammunition case.
Hawick—a town in Scotland famous for tweeds.
Head—see Wool.
Head—the face or small top part of a collar button.
Head-and-face-protector—a sort of leather armor for boxers afraid to take punishment.
Head carrier—see Tump line.
Head harness—general term for helmets, leather caps, ear guards, etc., worn by slugball players.
Head net—a contrivance for warding off insects.
Headlight—diamond.
Headstone—a memorial tablet at the head of a grave, often highly decorativ (or supposedly so), and emblazoned with a choice compilation of eulogistic lies.
Health band—same as Abdominal b.
Heather—a flower found in the meadows of the British kingdom; basis of the yellow dye used in coloring Harris tweeds.
Heather mixtures—trade name for fabrics of no special pattern but showing a color scheme resembling, tho faintly, a heather meadow.
Heel—the pieces of leather put together and placed on the outside of the shoe immediately under the h. of the foot.
Heel breast—(shoemaking) the back of the h.
Heel lift—(1) an elastic device of rubber, cork and felt to wear within shoes for the purpose of relieving the jar of walking, also to throw up the instep; (2) one of the layers of leather used in forming the h. of a shoe.
Heel plate—(1) a metal plate affixt to heels to prevent the leather from undue wear or damage; (2) a metal attachment fastened to the h. of a shoe for securing certain styles of ice skates securely thereto. See Shoe p.
Heel rand—see Rand.
Heel seat wheeling—a little line of indentations made in the leather around the h. (of a shoe) by a wheel, as one of the finishing operations.
Heel shaping—a mechanical process, of course.
Heel stay—see H. strip.
Heel strap—sometimes called back s. A loop either of leather or woven tape inserted in the top at the back of the shoe and used to draw the shoe on the foot by inserting the finger thru the loop.
Heel-strip—a narrow band of leather or cloth sewn inside hems of trousers where they rub on the heel.
Heeling—in modern shoemaking an entirely mechanical process, save for laying the leather together and filling with nails the holes in a nailing machine.
Held-blistered edge—drawn too tightly with the stay tape. (Tailoring term.)
Heliotrope—a “heavy” perfume distilled from or in imitation of the flower of the same name.
Hemp—see Kemp.
Hemstitch—an ornamental finish for hems, as in handkerchiefs, effected by drawing a few threads parallel to the hem and connecting in groups by stitching, the exposed threads running oppositly.
Henrietta—a sort of fine cashmere, usually with a silk warp.
Hercules braid—a flat, coarse ribbed worsted braid, of various widths, used for ornament or decoration, largely for uniforms, and often called military braid.
Hermsdorff—trade diminutiv for fast-black hosiery, etc., dyed by Louis Hermsdorff, Chemnitz, and used in the sense of being a standard of quality.
Herringbone—general term for patterns, produced in weaving, consisting of short diagonal lines running warpwise, meeting and contrasting with another series turned oppositly, with zigzag repetition; a fishbone pattern.
Herringbone stitch—see Padding s.
Hessians—high boots, tassled in front, worn early in 19th century.
Hickory shirting—(1) a heavy, stout, plain-woven cotton material, resembling gingham, heavily starcht and calendered, used for working shirts. See Osnaburg. (2) Name also applied to a coarse twilled cotton fabric, striped or checkt, also used for working shirts.
Hides—trade term for the skins of large animals, as horse, cow, ox, etc. Compare Skins.
Higgin—the old-fashioned shoemaker’s pot of water for wetting soles.
High-band—trade term for high, turndown or folded shirt collars; also called high-bander. See Meeting folder, Lock front, Fold collar, etc.
High dutchers—skates, the blades of which are ornamentally curled in front; those without this ornamentation are called dumps.
High heels—a godsend for runts—and surgeons.
High-pickt—textil trade term for many threads to the inch.
High polish—laundry term for perverted elegance applied to one’s linen.
High-rise—term applied to trousers cut high in the waist. See Rise.
High-shouldered—having pronounced shoulders of more than normal hight.
Highwater—derisiv term for trousers too short for the wearer.
Highland gaiters—overgaiters or spats.
Hilt—the handle and guard of a sword.
Himation—a square or oblong piece of cloth, more or less decorated, worn by the early Greeks draped about the left shoulder and covering the body (more or less) according to its adjustment.
Hip—that part of the body between the brim of the pelvis and the free part of the thigh.
Hip boots—b. reaching to the hips.
Hip pants—see H. trousers.
Hip pocket—a p. placed horizontally in the rear portion of trousers, between the waistband and seat; a breeding place of sudden death if fortified.
Hip-spring—tailoring term indicating an allowance made for the fullness of the hips in cutting a garment, as a waistcoat.
Hip trousers—t. intended to be worn without suspenders, and to be sustained by the hips with or without the aid of a belt; usually cut lower in the waist, and closer fitting there, than when suspenders are to be worn.
Hirsute appendage—whiskers.
Hob nails—short n. with very broad, heavy heads, used for sporting shoes, working brogans, etc., as a protection to the soles and for surety of footing.
Hockey glove—a stout padded leather g. for protecting fingers, joints, etc.
Hockey leg guards—see Shin g.
Hockey shoe—a laced s. with a strap across instep from side to side of heel.
Hog—pigskin.
Hog wool—term given, in England, to w. clipt from lambs.
Hoi polloi—“gents” who wear “pants” and ready-tied neckwear.
Hold-all—a leather or canvas shawl roll or carrier. See Carry-all and Wrap.
Hold in—tailoring term signifying, in the making of a garment, the feat of getting a larger part neatly into a smaller opening, or seaming a larger to a smaller part, or to work in an edge to less than its cut dimension, for purposes of shapeliness, style, etc. Compare Stretch.
Holland—a fine, stout, compact, plain woven linen cloth, usually unbleacht, sometimes slightly glazed, used as shirtings, suitings, interlinings, etc.; originally made in Holland, whence name.
Holster—a carrier for the personal arsenal.
Hollow ground—cutler’s term indicating that a blade, as of a razor, is ground concave instead of flat.
Hombourg hat—about same as Alpine or Fedora. See Tyrolean h.
Homespun—general name for the plain woven woolen suitings made by the peasantry of the British isles, properly from undyed natural colored homespun yarns, with or without an admixture of home dyed yarns, woven on crude hand looms, and of rather loose, tho stout, texture and of enormous durability. Modernly imitated on power looms.
Honeycomb—(1) an ornamental pattern, effected in the loom, applied mostly to towelings, giving a resemblance to honeycomb cells; (2) a raised effect in weaving, sometimes employed in worsted suitings.
Hood—a cloth covering for the head; sometimes attacht to overcoats and capes, also to academic gowns, ornamentally so in this latter case.
Hood overcoat—any o. with an attacht or detachable hood; a military o.
Hoods—scholastic h. are made of the same material as the gowns; lined with the official colors of the college or university conferring the degree, or with which the recipients of academic honors from other institutions may be connected, and are trimmed with velvet, the color being distinctiv of the faculty to which the degree pertains. Thus: Arts and Letters, white; Theology, scarlet; Law, purple; Medicin, green; Philosophy, dark blue; Science, gold yellow; Fine arts, brown; Music, pink; Pharmacy, olive; Dentistry, lilac; Veterinary, gray; Forestry, russet; Library science, lemon.
Hook-and-eye—a small h. of double wire and an appropriate e. to engage it; a garment fastening device.
Hook-in—to shorten, as of the gorge of a collar.
Hop gloves—white lisle g. in contradistinction to white cotton or Berlin g. (West Point colloquialism.)
Hop stick—a crutch.
Hopsacking—a coarse, open-wove, woolen fabric, with a square or checkered mesh in imitation of bagging, made in suiting and overcoating weights.
Horace Greeley hat—a tall, felt “plug” h., later known as the (Grover) Cleveland h.
Horned alligator—a leather characterized by its peculiar sharp ridges or protuberances (the spinal ridge of the critter?).
Hornoid—trade name for a composition used for buttons in imitation of real horn.
Horns—unseen articles of decoration sometimes worn by married men.
Horse-shoe collar—trade term for coat collars not made on a straight line, but curved and twisted to fit corresponding hollows carved into the neck of the coat. This is a c. that is easily made by machinery and is a characteristic of most readymade clothing and cheap tailoring. Compare Straight c.
Horse show—once a parade-show of horse-flesh and accomplishments; nowadays a raree show of the frills and fripperies of human “fashion” and vanity.
Horsey—applied to a straining after coaching or stable effects in attire by those who think it smart.
Hose—general term for stockings, long, short and otherwise; anciently, a sort of tights.
Hosen—obsolete plural of hose.
Hosier—British for “gent’s furnisher”.
Hosier—one who deals in hosiery and other knit goods. (Mostly of British use.)
Hosiery—broadly comprehending stockings, tights and all branches of the hosier’s business.
Hot-water bag—an article of temporary wear in illness.
Houppelande—(1) a kind of cloak or overgarment worn alike by men and women in France in the 15th century, resembling somewhat a modern dressing gown or kimona; (2) a name given in France, in the early part of the last century, to a single-caped frock coat, sometimes called a crispin cloak (qv).
House coat—a fancy lounging c. or jacket.
House slippers—homely solid comfort.
Housemaid’s collar—“British” for the highband folded or double shirt c. (men’s—not women’s, mind you!).
Hovie—a mantle of state, worn about the time of the crusades, quite a gorgeous affair and often hung with silver bells.
Huckaback—a heavy, coarse, rough linen or cotton toweling of a birdseye, honeycomb or armure weave; commonly shortened to huck.
Huddersfield—a manufacturing town in Yorkshire and the chief seat of the English cloth and woolen manufactures; a name commonly given in this country to clay worsteds from the best coming from that town from the mills of J. & B. Clay.
Humeral veil—an oblong scarf of the same material as the chasuble, worn over the shoulders by sub-deacons at high mass and by priests when giving the benediction or carrying the sacrament in procession.
Humidor—a casket designed to maintain a certain degree of moisture or humidity in cigars kept therein.
Hunting boot—an extra heavy and high shoe of stout, waterproof leather, foxt and double soled, with hobnails in sole and heel.
Hunting cap—a close-fitting, velvet c., with short visor.
Hunting-case—a watch-c. having the dial side as well as the back protected by a cover or lid.
Hunting coat—a short, red cutaway—English, you know.
Hunting costume—those who ape British modes will please wear a “pink” (i.e. vivid scarlet) frock coat with round-cornered bell skirt (or “pink” morning coat), white corduroy or leather breeches, fancy waistcoat, neck stock, top boots, and tall silk hat; appareled thus you are fit to join William Waldorf Astor and other near-Britons.
Hunting cuffs—a finish on coat sleeves consisting of buttoned open vents with, usually, a row or two of stitching in simulation of cuffs.
Hunting frock—a single-breasted f. coat with short full skirts.
Hunting hat—a silk h. with cord or guard to prevent loss.
Hunting hood—a knitted wool h. covering entire head (except face), neck and upper shoulders, worn in cold countries by hardy hunters, explorers, etc.
Hunting sack—a name given to single-breasted s. coats designed for shooting purposes; usually with a turned down collar closing at the throat and capacious patch pockets.
Hunting shirt—(1) a deerskin, blouse-like garment, in use amongst trappers and frontiersmen; sometimes very ornamental; (2) any stout woolen, cotton or linen s. of inconspicuous color.
Husking cloth—a heavy cotton ticking used for farmers’ gloves and mittens.
Husking glove—a g. used by harvest hands for husking, etc.
Hustling suit—see Jepson.
Hymeneal knot—a style of k. that, with a little practise, is one of the easiest tied and untied.
Hyperion curls—found in novels and in portraits of Roscoe Conkling.
I
Ice-cream hat—a light-colored, soft felt h. on the telescope order, extreme in some detail of color, shape or trimming, affected usually by college boys and other irresponsibles.
Idiot fringe—football hair; bangs.
Imitation—not genuin; deceptiv; fraudulent.
Imitation fur—textil achievements, usually on a stockinet body, often quite deceptiv; near-fur.
Imitation haircloth—a stiffening interlining fabric not made with horse hair, but entirely or nearly so of heavily sized vegetable fibers, tho some of the “better” grades have variously alternated real horse hairs inserted. For tailoring purposes these poorer grades are practically worthless. See Istle.
Immaculate—spotless.
Imp—one length of twisted hair in a fishing line.
Imperial—a cravat tied in a small, close knot and with long, wide, flowing ends or apron.
Imperial—a pointed tuft of hair on the chin just under the lower lip; so called because worn by Napoleon III.
Imported—“from the old world”, or elsewhere.
Imprime—French for printed; generally used in speaking of warp-printed silks.
In-and-out flap—in tailoring a f. made the same size as the pocket so it can be turned into same; the opposit of laid-on f., which may be larger than the width of the pocket opening; the former the distinctiv pocket f. of sack coats, the latter more often seen on frock coats.
In-the-drag—tailors’ term indicating that one is behind in his work and has to “pull out”.
In the flannel—see Flannel.
In the grease—term for fleece marketed as clipt from the sheep; unwasht.
In the gum—silk that has not been “boiled off”.
Inauguration cloth—a variant of coronation c., used in this country during the vogue of the former and about the time of a presidential inauguration.
Inch tape—a t. measure.
Incline measures—m. taken by tailors to ascertain if a customer is erect or stooping, carries his head forward or backward, has large or flat blades, etc., and how much.
Incroyable—a name given to politicians and dandies (imagine, politicians!) of the time of the (French) Directorate (1795–99), who made extremity in dress a cult—they wore the highest collars, the chokingest cravats, the most pretentious canes and were otherwise much like the precieuses ridicules of Moliere’s time.
India silk—a soft, thin, untwilled s. fabric, woven like fine muslin.
Indian gown—see Banyan.
Indian tanned—name given to a slow process of preparing leather for the market, by curing the raw hides with salt and repeated immersions in bark solutions, usually requiring as many weeks to complete as acid tanning (qv) does days, but resulting in a softer, more pliable and more durable leather.
Indigo—a deep blue dye obtained from several plants of the genus Indigofera, native of India and Asia and also found in Africa and South America; known from the most remote times; a permanent color.
Indigo test—the common t. for i.-blue on wool is to drop a small quantity of nitric acid on the goods and leave it to dry out, when, if the goods are pure i., the center of the spot will be a bright yellow with a border of green. For testing on cotton the simplest and safest way is to burn a piece of the goods on a porcelain plate; if the color is i., that part of the plate where the i. burns will be covered with a blue film; no other coloring matter will show a similar reaction.