Thing Not To Do Today: mop.

Even those of us who would feel happiest surrounded by layers of history - the coffee slopped onto the table after tripping over Grandma, the spatter of blood stains after the wrestling match trying to open the sardine tin, the fine all-over dust laid down the day the vacuum cleaner got whooping cough - can hardly avoid the occasional bit of mopping, whether it's the tears of a child or the ketchup on a tie.

If, however, your child is permanently contented, and you cunningly wear a ketchup-coloured tie, then to mop also means to pull a sad face.


photo by DodosD

That sort of mopping won't do anyone much good, though, will it?

Thing Not To Do Today: mop. The cleaning word comes from the lovely English word mappel, from the Latin mappa, which means napkin. The sad-face word appeared in the 1500s and might come from the Dutch moppen, to pour. Also possibly relevant is the fact that the Dutch word mop means pug (as in dog).