In Danish if you have one tiny thing it is 'lille'. If there are more than one of them they are 'små'.
In English you have both words (little and small) but don't seem to make a singular/plural distinction - so are they little shirts? Or small shirts?
"Small shirts" just sounds better doesn't it? In New Zealand (and possibly Scotland) they are "wee shirts".
F has a great-nephew living in Canada. There is only one of him so he is probably little. Having said that, small seems to suit the description of him better than little. As in: He's small, or better still, 'The Wee Bloke'.
Either way he is about 6 or 7 months old and not yet dangerous to cats. He's going to get lost inside these shirts any time in the next 12 months or so; which is probably a good thing as they are summer shirts and might meet in him in age and size at the start of summer in 2022. By then she might be able to go there and deliver them in person.
By then she might have to pack an extra suitcase. There is a pile of fabrics on the ironing board and all the 'small' sized sewing patterns are out on the floor ... shirts, overalls, vests, jackets...
Mr B's family added another grand-daughter in the same week that Wee F (for his name, meaning 'a great happiness', starts with F too...maybe we should refer to him as F2) was born. So there are separate stacks of sparkly party dress material and lace and frilly dress patterns ... and Vogue style coat patterns...
There is a question of some sort in there about checks (plaids for our US friends) and earth colours for boys, and fairy costumes and high fashion for girls, but cats don't care. They are all small humans to me and the clothes sort of help me tell them apart before they get within range; and take suitable avoiding precautions.
Philosophical meanderings about gender stereotypes aside, F's getting ahead of herself isn't she? For now they are just messing up baby-grows, and nappies and bibs aren't they?
F's note: The 'checks' are significant ,by the way, in that they are remnants of fabrics F's Mum used to make work shirts for TJ (F's Dad and special grandfather to F2's own Dad). He'd have loved F2.
Did you know F2’s middle name is the family heirloom of James, in honor of your dad?
ReplyDeleteI did, and the name goes way back to the first son born in NZ to the the original immigrants of the family. He became a blacksmith at Mayfield which was a crossing on the north/south route along the foothills to the Canterbury Plain, and the route into the hills up the Ashburton River. One day I'll give F2 photos of his namesakes if he's ever interested.
Deleteok, i will say a few words in Southern English, because each part of our USA uses the same words differently, just like you did here.. my hubby uses different words than I do because he is from the NORTH and I am from the SOUTH.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the photo, the first shirt is plaid, the second in checks and all of them are tiny.. Clothes are tiny, the baby is small... but now I prefer Wee Bloke over all of the others.. i throughly enjoyed this post.I wish I had the talent or gift of sewing...
I love F2, my favorite of your words.
I wish F had your talent for tech stuff (and then she might not have deleted photos saved for blogging when she was meant to be backing up her photo archive this morning. We checked all the recyle bins and they didn't appear in any - laptop and phone were connected by a string at the time.) Still - more outings to collect them up again.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteAgain we find how language migrates... in Scots (originating from Brythonic and Pictish tongues) "Wee" pertains specifically to measure, quantity or the degree in comparison - so not just little, but short or lesser than. There are other words with more specifics; "Littlin" is particular to body size of children; "Boukit" is to be shrunken... in the Gaelic it gets confusing as the word for small is "Beag"... (and I always get a tickle when watching Swedish shows when they say 'good' they have the word "Bra", which is not an item of clothing, but just the Scots word "Braw" without the modifying double-u and exaclty the same meaning...) That's enough from me. I love the fabrics telling their stories so thank you Tigger for sharing them! Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Wee to me means something a while lot different :)
ReplyDeleteAnd to us too.
DeleteI guess as well as small or little or even wee .. we could say tiny, or teeny-weeny or ittsy-bitsy or tiddly (that a bit like tiddles) or titchy.. or compact? mini or minute or even microspcopic... or pocket sized... i could go on, but I won't. Oscar is calling me for a walk or is that a stroll or a ramble or a perambulation...
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing about writers... words at their disposal. Cats and dogs don't care.
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