Word To Use Today: wimple.

 Here's a plain, unassuming word. In a world of shouters and show-offs, that's rather endearing.

I don't see nearly as many nuns as I used to, but they sometimes used to wear wimples:

photo by Bryan Ledgard

(The wimple is the cloth that goes over the head and under the chin. They were quite fashionable in the Middle Ages (though that was just a bit before my time):)

painting by Robert Campin

In Scotland a wimple is a bend or curve in a river:

photo by Gareth Hart

and to wimple can mean to ripple.

There is also a very old meaning which is rather lovely: to arrange a piece of cloth so it falls in folds.

Whatever it means, it's a gentle word. 

And sometimes, you know, that's just what you need.

Word To Use Today: wimple. This word was wimpal in Old English, so people have been using it for a long time.