Spot the frippet: manchester.

Of course the easiest way to spot manchester is to go to...er...Manchester, but even if you can't go there yourself then this is a nice satisfying thing which it would be madness to shun.

In any case, the first thing you saw when you woke this morning was some manchester.

No, not an alarm clock.

Nor your false teeth grinning at you mockingly from a glass.

Nor an impatient-to-play dog, spouse, or child.

No, Manchester, in the meaning invented by the Australians and New Zealanders, is household linen: sheets and towels and the like. Possibly the occasional pillowslip.

You know, those things that are hardly ever made of linen.

In NZ and Oz they even have manchester departments in stores where you buy, not this sort of thing:



but possibly this sort of thing:



A manchester is also one of these:


Manchester terrier in a barn by Edwin Loder.


the small versions of which were traditionally to be found in a pouch hung from a huntsman's belt, hence their other name, the Gentleman's Terrier.

Word To Use Today: manchester. Everything is named after the city in North West England. The city was named by the Romans Mamucium, which most people think was a version of the Celtic for breast-like hill, from mamm, breast, and ceaster, town.

Or the city's name could come from the Brythonic mamma, which means mother, where the mother was the godess of the River Madlock.

PS and NB I am not a Manchester United supporter (MILLWALL!) but I know some very nice people who are. Okay?