Sunday Rest: pongee. Word Not To Use Today.

Okay, okay, this could be worse: at least you don't pronounce it pong-ee. (It's pondge-ee, as it happens.)

But what is it?

It's actually something rather lovely.

Pongee is a fine silk fabric, usually left in its natural pale cream colour (though with the current craze for genetic engineering we'll probably soon have silk worms producing thread in every shade from gamboge to puce). 

Pongee can also be a fabric that imitates the texture of silk.

It's beautiful, free-flying, light-catching stuff.

But pongee? They call it pongee?

Lovely stuff like that, and they make it sound like some sort of a long-festering mop.

Bah!

Word Not To Use Today: pongee. This word comes from the Mandarin Chinese pen-chi, woven at home, from pen, own, and chi loom.