"opening the kimono" (1979?, 1984)

[sagehen]

Victoria Neufeldt writes:
>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.  As Doug suggests, as far as I can
>remember, we did not think of that article of clothing or the name in
>relation to the Japanese robe at all.  I think the reference was to a
>woman's/girl's robe, not a man's.
>
>Incidentally, I don't recall ever encountering the expression "open
>the kimono" before reading about it on this list.

Victoria
 ~~~~~~~~~~
This is almost exactly what I would have said in responding to this thread,
including the last sentence.
A. Murie