Re: Expressing fractions

From: Alan Jones (atj_at_blueyonder.co.uk)
Date: 01/01/05 

Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 19:28:51 GMT

"Dik T. Winter" <Dik.Winter@cwi.nl> wrote in message
news:I9n36J.Gt6@cwi.nl...
> In article <m21xd5mo3p.fsf@komodo.home.wards.net> William R Ward
> <bill@wards.net> writes:
> > Tony Cooper <tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> writes:
> > > On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 03:16:17 GMT, "Dik T. Winter" <Dik.Winter@cwi.nl>
> > > wrote:
> > > >Perhaps I am not a real man. I carry a purse measuring 10 x 6 x 0.5
> > > >cm
> > > >containing all the money I carry. It fits pretty well in tight
> > > >trousers
> > > >side pockets,
> > >
> > > Americans would not normally consider anything that is carried a man's
> > > pocket to be a purse. Purses are carried in the hand, dangled from a
> > > wrist strap, or slung from the shoulder. We are aware that the word
> > > means anything you carry money in, or even money itself, but we just
> > > don't think of a purse as something that's put into a pocket.
> >
> > Well, a "coin purse" would fit in a pocket. Other than that, I think
> > perhaps Dik is just misusing the word "purse."
>
> Webster:
>
> purse 1. n. a small container for coins etc., carried in a pocket or
> handbag.

We've been here before, I think.

In the UK a "purse" is essentially for carrying coins, though its size may
vary widely, One the size of Dik's would usually be carried by a woman in
her handbag and would have several internal compartments, perhaps two
holding coins and relatively bulky objects such as keys and another two of a
flatter type for banknotes [AmE "bills"] and such. A man's purse is much
smaller (I think what in the US is called a "coin purse") and usually
U-shaped rathe than rectangular: mine has two small compartments one behind
the other, with a cover flap attached by a leather "hinge". Men, and many
women, will also have a "wallet" [AmE "pocketbook"??] for flat things such
as banknotes and credit cards, carried by a man in an internal jacket pocket
or in a trouser hip pocket and by a woman in her handbag.

Some men scorn the purse as showing over-careful and penny-pinching
attention to trivia such as coins and the holes they wear in pockets, and
it's perhaps the elderly who are most likely to use one.

Judging by the variety of leather goods for men sold in Italy and Germany,
it's evident that the design, use and social connotations of purses and the
like must be very different there. I rarely if ever see men in the UK
carrying the "clutch bags" quite common in e.g. Italy.

Alan Jones

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