Spot the frippet: jet.

Here's a word with something for everybody.

The sort of jet I can see most easily from here is a jet-black crow, but sometimes, very high up, nearly at the jet stream, I'll see a shining jet making its way south-eastwards towards Heathrow.

If you can find a fountain or a hosepipe then there'll be jets of water coming out of it, and, still on a watery theme, in New Zealand a jet boat is powered by jets of water.

If you manage to spot a very tired person in diamonds riding on one of these:


Photo Kenneth Allen

then you can award yourself triple points, because that could well be a member of the jet set with jet lag on a jet ski.

Then there's this:

Personally, I find jet a bit creepy because it's associated with mourning brooches (complete with the hair of a dead person inside them...ergh!). The Romans thought jet was creepy, too, but in a good way, and used it for warding off the evil eye. Burning the stuff was said to drive away snakes and show up fake illnesses. Jet is easy to burn because it's basically a sort of very hard shiny coal.

Best of all, of course, is one of these:


Photo Maxence piot

And this really is one for absolutely everybody.

Because everyone, but everyone, wants his own jet-pack. Don't they?

Spot the Frippet: jet. The word to do with fast movement comes from the French jeter, to throw, from Latin jactāre, to toss about. The jewel comes from the Greek lithos gagatēs, stone of Gagai, a town in Asia Minor.