Interesting, Martin. I thought the sally ally were offering one way tickets back there or second-hand items from their football teams. So had to look it up. Wonder why the use of that word never caught on here?

Yes I do know, and I thought it was a British usage as well.

Kath - nope! Never heard of it. I had to ask my rellies what it meant. Be interesting to find out if it's known in the US, when they wake up.

I was told that it was because bed linen etc. was originally shipped to Australia from Manchester.

An Australian lady shopping in Harrods asked if the item she had just bought could be wrapped and held while she went up to Manchester and she would be back in a couple of minutes. The assistant was very confused as Manchester is a long way from London.

Martin, I thought you haven't changed either. Painting in the attic?

Martin, I'm awake -- actually I haven't gone to bed yet, although it's nearly 2 a.m. here.

I was confused by your photo, because I didn't see a weird word in it. As for Manchester, yes, it's known in the U.S. as a name for bed linen, perhaps like Waterford is what some people call crystal.

Frieda, I have noticed before that you don't seem to sleep much, as you answer at odd hours. My daughter has strange sleeping patterns too, ever since she was a baby, so schooling was a problem!

Annpan, I often don't know what time zone I'm currently in. I change location too frequently. :-)

Frieda, Martin will be having that problem too. Adelaide is different to Sydney and in Perth I am three hours behind Sydney which makes talking to my friends there rather tricky. They are having lunch when I breakfast and they go to bed when I want to chat in the evening...

I've never heard that term used for bedding and linens. Frieda, where did you hear it used? It's not in New England usage to the best of my knowledge. The things I learn here!

Sheri, I've seen the term on signs in several department stores, most of them probably west of the Mississippi because I haven't been in the east as much. I think Bed, Bath & Beyond uses "Manchester" (at least in some of the stores) to indicate the particular section in which a shopper can locate the linens. Also, I have heard people my age and older refer to "manchester" when they are talking about linen for bed, bath, and dining, and sometimes for things such as curtains, as well.

Sheri, this southeast US gal has never heard that term before, either. To me Manchester is a city in England. :)

I don't remember ever hearing linens generically referred to by their brand name. There are lots of other items where the brand name is generic, like Kleenex and Xerox machines.

Donna

Never heard it used either, despite all my travels.

I live in the Northeast and have never heard that term either. It's never too late to learn something new!

Never heard it in Kentucky.

New to me also in the U.S. Midwest.

Hmm, I seem to be the odd one out among U.S. RPers, unless some of the westerners respond that they know about manchester as bed linen, etc. (Spellchecker keeps capitalizing the initial letter for me, but the definitions I found in a search use the lowercase. Which is it in Australia, uppercase or lowercase?)

Trying to remember where I saw it used in the U.S., I searched for locations of stores where manchester is specifically mentioned for sale. In Houston, TX near where my brother lives there are three stores and another three in San Antonio. In Phoenix, AZ about an hour away from where my son lives, there are two listings. In Denver, CO where I used to live there are two more. Two popped up for Honolulu. So the term is obviously known in the western U.S. I didn't check any other part of the country.

It interests me etymologically, because I wonder if the U.S. usage was borrowed from Australians who have resided here or whether Americans began using it independently for the same reason Australians did: the importation of linen goods from Manchester. I also found out that linens (with the 's' ending, as we say/spell it in the U.S.) aren't necessarily made of linen and haven't been for perhaps a hundred years or more.

See, Martin, the track you can get me to take. :-)

I would say that manchester here would be all household items for bed, bath or table, so perhaps that shop can change its name :)

And I would use lower case, although the term isn't used much any more.

Kath, do you mean Bed, Bath & Beyond should change its name?

Sorry, I'm dense and not following. :-)

What term instead of lowercase is used? Or do you mean that manchester isn't used much?

Frieda, In Western Australia the Manchester Department has gradually dropped this name and isn't used as much now as Bedlinen etc, particularly in the more upscale stores, one of which has also dropped the Christmas Decoration section name in favour of Trimmings and The Giftorium instead of Gift Department.

I sent a sarcastic email to their Head Office some years ago asking if the then-newly advertised "Trim Shop" was going to be for men's hairdressing but they never replied...

I wonder (and it is no more than that) if the word 'manchester' to describe bed/table linen was more prevalent in the US South because the cotton grown there was shipped to Liverpool then to the spinning factories of Manchester then eventually arrived back as cloth or made-up goods? You will know that at the time of the US Civil War there was support from England for the Southern cause because of this trade link.

Over here, I don't think we use the name 'linen' to describe bathroom 'materials' ie towels.

Ann, I think the name 'Trim Shop' over here referred to part of a car factory/works; the final part (?) of the production line . . . and where the workers spent most of the time fermenting discontent and organising strikes. They and their fellow 'Paint Shop' collegues were so successful, as you know, that virtually all car manufacturing has long ceased over here. Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot!

Old Trim Shop News

Calling bedclothing linen is rather inaccurate anyway. Most of the sheets these days are more likely to be cotton or synthetic mixes.

After reading an article praising the benefits, I recently bought two linen sheets, flat and fitted for my Double Bed and the price before I took advantage of the 40% Off Sale was over $A500. Gulp!

Luckily in summer they dry quickly so I only need one pair. They are lovely and cool in the heat so I hope they are long lasting...

Vee, I've lived in the South in various states and never heard "manchester" used. We would say "linens". When I was growing up, our tablecloths were actually made of linen, as were napkins, and some dishtowels.

Frieda, sorry about my post - on rereading it, the clarity is seriously lacking.

I meant the shop could call itself Manchester, and make it shorter, and that manchester as a word for those things is not much used now. Lower case is still popular :)

Kath, I get it now! Thanks.

I'm still groaning over "The Giftorium" replacing the Gift Department, Annpan. So far, has this bit of silliness spread? It probably would in the U.S. if it ever makes it here. That sort of thing passes for cleverness to many, I suppose.

Vee, your wondering sent me on another search of 'manchester' in the New Orleans area. Nothing turned up in N.O. or Baton Rouge, however. New Orleans has been the principal Gulf of Mexico port in the American South since long before the Civil War, so it would seem likely that 'manchester' goods could have been imported there as well as other goods from Manchester and other parts of England. Thereafter, the goods could have fanned out in distribution to the west instead of to the east, as the relative unknownness of 'manchester' in the eastern part of the South might indicate.

Another possibility could have been the port of Galveston in the nineteenth century and later the port of Houston after the hurricane of 1900 wiped out Galveston for a time. Most of the goods that came into those ports went west. It's an interesting exercise trying to trace it. Thanks for giving me a clue for more searching. :-)

I am a westerner - 25 years in California - and I have never seen the word used here.

Frieda, I admire the way you wrestle with a word, searching for indications until you have it pinned down!

My young family members were having a discussion on how "meme" was pronounced.

I had only read the word and thought it was meant to rhyme with "cream" but one said she had heard it as "MeMe" on a TV program (well we know what presenters can do with a word!) another said it was "Mem".

I checked on Google and the person who invented the word said it did indeed rhyme with cream! Hah! One for the old girl...

Frieda, let's hope "Giftorium" never goes beyond this forum in the US! About 25 years ago my DH worked for a drugstore that had a small restaurant called the "Good Old Days Emporium". They found very few Americans who had heard of an emporium!

Ann, I have always heard meme pronounced to rhyme with cream. :)

Donna

I don't understand what meme means, let alone know how to pronounce it. Nor is it listed in my very large English dictionary!

The word "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins, in his book The Selfish Gene. It is intended to be an analogy with "gene", so is clearly pronounced to rhyme with "cream". (And, in any case, he says so in the book!)

Basically, he suggested that culture is basically made up of memes, rather as DNA is made up of in genes. Memes are replicators, as are genes. I'm not sure the idea ever really gained much traction, but the name stuck.

Nowadays, memes tends to mean anything on the internet which has become sort-of common knowledge and copies itself around - things like LOL and emoticons are often called "internet memes".

The Selfish Gene was published in 1976 - so the word itself is quite old.

Thank you Martin. I976 quite old ? You should hear some of the language/expressions used round here; many of them are positively Anglo Saxon.

Frieda, although I have found quite a few references to 'Manchester' cotton goods and US ports I got bogged down with 'tariffs' which seemed to cause endless trouble in nineteenth century US, the dominance of New York as a port city and lack of trade in/out of Southern ports. It looks as though my 'theory' was a non-starter!

Vee, forget the printed dictionaries! Look up modern words online. Also some fun memes like the Brussels Lockdown cats.

One meme I think is clever and has been around awhile is Attempted Murder!

In GWTW...Didn't wicked Rhett Butler suggest a name for Scarlett's store "Caveat Emptorium"?

I wasn't even sure what 'manchester' refers to specifically. For some reason I thought it was an old-fashioned English term for bedding, but looking it up I see that it refers to linens in general.

Seen the word before, but never used it myself. I don't think many people in my generation (Y) use it.