Word To Use Today: sennit.

What's the connection between a Pacific gourd and your head? 

No, no, it's all right, don't go off in a huff. I'll explain.

Sennit is flat plaited stringy stuff: 


container from New Caledonia made from a gourd wrapped with coconut-husk sennit. Photo by Derrick Coetzee


That plaiting is both clever and beautiful, isn't it. And if you think that's cool, then have a look at this:


Fijian coconut-husk sennit is called magimagi and is used to hold buildings together. Photo by Vcox.

Sometimes sennit is used on ships, but more commonly round these parts it's made of straw or grass or palm leaves and sewn round in a long coil to make hats:

 

And so sennit ends up wrapped round your head just as it does on that New Caledonian gourd in the picture above.

Well, what other similarity could there possibly have been?

Word To Use Today: sennit. This word appeared in English in the 1600s, but no one knows where it came from.