No? Thought not.
Never mind. Even in your eyes-mostly-gummed-shut, trembling, whimpery Monday way you should be able to spot a trivet quite easily.
The original sort of a trivet, which was a metal stand on legs used for supporting a pot over a fire, might not be easy (unless someone starts a fashion for outdoor cooking in a cauldron. And, after all, why not? A bowl of hot stew is just what you need in an English spring) but the sort of trivet which is used to protect a surface from something hot is simple.
No, it really is. Just take a newspaper, fold it, put it on a table, and place your coffee cup upon it.
There we are, Mission accomplished.
As for something that's as right as a trivet, that expression first appeared in the 1800s. It started off as steady as a trivet, and then changed to right as a trivet (that's right as in upright). From there the right in this expression soon came to be understood as sparkily healthy.
I don't suppose many of us are awake enough yet to know whether we're healthy or not.
But I hope you get there by lunchtime.
Photo by Robert Lawton
Spot the frippet: trivet. This word comes from the Old English trefet, from the Latin tripē
I wonder if I could stick a trivet on top of our wood-stove, as it's pretty gosh dang cold outside, and a bowl of stew sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteWe do use an old pot on top of it when we lose power, but a trivet would be much better!
That's an encouraging thought, Jingles. Who needs gas when we can have a saucepan of stew cooked over a fire?
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