Breeches/etymology

Famous quotes containing the words breeches and/or etymology:

    We found it at last, an’ a little shed
    Where they shut up the lamb at night.
    We looked in an’ seen them huddled thar,
    So warm an’ sleepy an’ white;
    An’ THAR sot Little Breeches an’ chirped,
    As peart as ever you see,
    “I wants a chaw of terbacky,
    An’ that’s what’s the matter of me.”
    John Milton Hay (1838–1905)

    Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.
    Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)