"Polka spots" (1846)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>    The MOA (Mich.) search considers this as "polka spotvest" rather than
> "polka-spot vest."

The search engine's opinion is irrelevant, IMHO.

The image of the printed page is at

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/m/moajrnl/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=75&root=mm000109%2F1626sout%2Fv0012%2Fi011&tif=06980694.tif&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hti.umich.edu%2Fcgi%2Fm%2Fmoajrnl%2Fmoajrnl-idx%3Fnotisid%3DACF2679-1626SOUT-181

The sentence in question (upper-middle column 2) reads "Cravat, Polka
spot--vest, white ground, sprinkled with gnats." -- with a long dash, not a
hyphen. More conventional punctuation nowadays might call for a semicolon:
"Cravat, Polka spot; vest, white ground, sprinkled with gnats." That is,
the cravat is being described as "Polka spot", while the vest is being
described as having a "white ground, sprinkled with gnats".

The modern equivalent would be something like: "Necktie, polka-dot; vest,
white with speckles", assuming that "gnat" here means "speckle" (I suppose
it could instead be some kind of conventional small figure which is now
largely forgotten -- is it recognizable to any of the savants?).

-- Doug Wilson