Sunday Rest: leatherette. Word Not To Use Today.

There's a lot of rot talked about sex-discrimination in language (the man in chairman just means human, for heaven's sake!) but a feminine -ette ending to a word does tend to imply smallness or falseness or inferiority.

Caravanette, cigarette, and kitchenette are examples.

(This isn't a hard and fast rule, though: there's nothing particularly inferior about stockingette, or an epaulette; and omelettes are magnificent.)

Anyway, leatherette is fake leather.  On hot days in tends to fuse to bare skin so that you rip yourself to shreds when you try to get up from the sofa.

Although the stuff is as common as ever, the word leatherette is falling into disuse, because now, cleverly, we have vegan leather. That's obviously much more desirable and virtuous.

Well, it will be until people realise it's usually another way of saying plastic, anyway.

Word Not To Use Today: leatherette. The Old English form of leather was lether. The -ette ending is French.