Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Clothes horse - WHAT?

Since when is a clothes rack (the thing we air our clothes to dry on after doing laundry) also called a clothes horse? I thought i was lost in translation when i looked up 빨래 건조대 and was presented with "clothes horse" on Naver's dictionary. I thought it was a Korean expression that had some sort of whacky cultural/language/symbolic significance, until i did a google search just out of curiosity.

Turns out such term exist in the English dictionary, and is in fact an English word. It's probably more commonly known as a clothes rack as to a clothes horse nowadays. I could be wrong. However, a quick survey of people around me seems to suggest they're in the same boat as me and don't have the faintest idea what it could be. Okay, i lied. One person had a rough idea of what it is but didn't pinpoint it down to exactly what part of laundry it is related to.

I hope Koreans learning English don't get too confused. Naver gives decent translation if you break the expression down 빨래= laundry 건조대 = drying rack.

Anyhow, it looks like i'm learning English while i'm trying to learn Korean.

1 comment:

  1. It depends where in the english-speaking world you live. 'Clothes horse' is the usual term in England! >_<

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