Peter writes:
> This quote below is from your side of the atlantic. I'm pretty sure the
> origins are from taylors in the UK too.
>
> From http://www.abc.net.au/classic/breakfast/index/2003_02_full.htm
> Bespoke Tuesday 4
>
> Kel Richards writes
>
> This is now a word that has fallen almost completely out of use.
> However, in old books you’ll come across the occasional reference to a
> bespoke tailor – which is an odd looking locution, so what does it mean,
> and where does it come from? Bespoke is still found in most dictionaries
> in the sense of “goods made to order, to the customer’s specifications,
> as opposed to ready-made goods (especially suits, jackets, etc.)”
> Bespoke comes from the old verb “to bespeak” which came to mean “to
> speak of, to tell of, to give outward expression of, to give evidence
> of” – as in “his very countenance and expression bespeaks an unhappy
> man”. The verb “to bespeak” could also mean “to ask, or to request, or
> to engaged to do something”. From this, to say that something was
> bespoken was to say that it was promised.
>
> “May I borrow that book when you’ve finished reading it?”
> “No, it’s already bespoken to someone else.”
> (That is, promised to someone else.)
>
> So “bespoke” and “promise” are virtually synonymous. And this is where
> the tailor comes in. He takes your measurements and your order, and
> promises to make up the suit according to your instructions. This is
> what makes him a “bespoke tailor”.
Thanks much. That was very informative. But if Australia is on "my side of
the Atlantic," in a burst of excessively enthusiastic longitudialism, let me
also claim that Norway is on my side of the Atlantic as well.
I think that the best you could say is that Australia is neutral territory,
populated by a group of odd people who speak with an accent that most Americans
can't differentiate from being British.
Wirt Atmar
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