"opening the kimono" (1979?, 1984)

[Mark A. Mandel]

Victoria Neufeldt <vneufeldt at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM> quoth:
>>>>
Doug Wilson made a good point about the use of the term 'kimono'.
That's what we used to use for 'housecoat', pronounced something like
(k@ mo' n@) with "long o" in the stressed syllable and the last vowel
not really a '@', but almost an 'a' as in 'far'.  I knew the word as a
kid in western Canada, long before I ever saw it in print.  When I
first saw it, I was very surprised by the spelling and henceforth felt
self-conscious about saying it.
<<<<

I've seen it written "kimona", I *think* as 'housecoat'; not in the context
of "open the...". But of course a person learning it as 'housecoat' could
easily have carried the pron. & spelling back to the Japanese garment once
they learned of it.

-- Mark A. Mandel