"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Thursday 28 May 2009

Chiffonier

 
There are some words which one comes across occasionally, usually when reading, of which one does not know the exact meaning but because the context makes it obvious what it is in broad terms ne doesn't bother looking it up. Such a word - for me - was chiffonier. I knew it was a piece of furniture but did not know what exactly.

However, when I looked up the definition I was left not much wiser - A chiffonier is either a side cabinet with or without a drawer and with one or more shelves above or a tall and narrow chest of drawers normally used for storing undergarments and lingerie. So it is a piece of furniture and it may or may not have shelves and drawers and it may or may not store undergarments. Mmmm. Didn't get me very far.

I decided to check images to see what they looked like.



Both these were described as chiffoniers so that didn't make me any wiser.

I sometimes wonder why I bother...
 

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