Handkerchief: [noun] a square of cotton or other finely woven material, typically carried in one's pocket and intended for blowing or wiping one's nose. ORIGIN: mid 16th cent.: from hand + kerchief .
OK, please forgive me for the following ramble, but the upside is that this will not take long at all.
I am just sitting here at Starbucks and about three or four minutes ago I have, for the first time in my life, been appropriately horrified at the true meaning of the word “handkerchief.”
See, I am reading a superb book, Matthew Pearl’s new one, The Poe Shadow, and all of a sudden this sentence sort of leaped out at me.
Scene: → A library where our protagonist, the inquisitive attorney Quentin Clark is spying on a certain man…
He would usually sit among the papers, interrupting himself only to blow his nose ferociously into his handkerchief, or one he borrowed from an unluckly patron. [p.128].
OK, hold on a minute.
I’ve always thought of being “unlucky” as maybe not winning the lottery. Or being struck by lightning, or hit by a bus. Perhaps slipping on a patch of ice and landing on your keester, or hitting the bumper of the car in front of you while you were distractededly ogling a woman on the sidewalk. [Not that this last thing ever happened to me about three years ago or anything…]
But having someone blow their nose into something, and then accepting that mess back again?
No, that is not unlucky.
That’s just stupid!
Reading that sentence in The Poe Shadow has just made me think of the entire concept of the handkerchief in sort of a glaringly realistic way. I guess, not ever owning one, I have just never thought about it much before.
So, let me get this straight now.
A “handkerchief” [even according to the Oxford definition above], is a piece of fabric that you blow your nose into….. AND THEN KEEP IT!
You tuck it away again, till next time!
And then what?
Do you wash it?
I mean, I am not sure that I am understanding this aright.
Surely a disposable Kleenex or similar product would make more sense? Is it just that, as the definition goes on to tell us, the handkerchief is some archaic thing originating in the 16th Century for which there is no current usage?
Like, it was necessary prior to the invention of disposable tissue?
Is there any acceptable modern-day excuse to be utilizing such a barbaric thing as a handkerchief?
Do people still void the contents of their nostrils into a piece of cloth and then KEEP IT ON THEIR PERSON?
I certainly hope not.
However, having said all of this, I can yet recall [rather vividly, even] an incident in which I truly wish the person next to me DID have a handkerchief handy…
*************
Yes, you wash them, soak them in bleach even. The only advantage of a handkerchief over the disposable tissue is that, generally, it is considerably softer. Except for the disposable handkerchiefs (not tissues) I bought in Portugal: they must've been 12-ply, you probably could wash them, and they came in fabulous colours.
ReplyDeleteMy mother always carried handkerchiefs and had one at the ready at my slightest sniffle, and for this I'm mostly grateful. I think it comes from her having grown up when/where disposable wasn't an option, and simply being a creature of habit (she's only just gotten the hang of cassette decks and VCRs; it'll take another 20 years before she comes round to CDs and DVDs). She uses Kleenex now but still carries handkerchiefs just in case.
I look forward to hearing more about The Poe Shadow. I read The Dante Club not too long ago and loved it. Matthew Pearl even emailed me, and for this I feel I owe him the courtesy of buying the new book.