Sunday Rest: midaxi. Word Not To Use Today.

 A midaxi is a type of skirt. In fact, it's a length of skirt.

You can probably guess the rest, but just in case you've never got into skirts, a midi skirt has a hem that ends mid-calf, that is, at the widest part of the lower leg. A maxi skirt goes down to cover the ankles. The midaxi hem sits in between, a little way above the ankle.

Given that people come in different heights, a skirt can't be guaranteed to be a midaxi. On tall people it might be a midi, and on short people it will be a maxi.

If it's a maxi then it is usually possible to turn the hem up to make it shorter, but ninety nine per cent of people will a) take or send it back; b) wear it as it is; or c) leave it hanging in the wardrobe until maxis come back into fashion.

Very few people really care that much.

Sunday Rest: midaxi. This horrible word is made up, obviously, of mid- and maxi-. Mid- has been in use in English since before the Norman Conquest, but maxi-, a short form of the Latin word maximum, which means greatest, has only been around since the 1900s.