Semantic drift: "khaki"

[Wilson Gray]

You can say that again! My memory of the color "chino" goes back to
the 'Fifties. Back then, "chino" and "khaki" were, at worst, variants
of two of the colors available in a weave called "cotton twill."
Workmen wore blue, black, green, white, grey, etc. Students wore
chino/khaki. I eventually switched to Levi's. Whoever thought up the
rhyme,

No matter how you shake and dance,
The last few drops fall down your pants,

must have worn cotton twill.

-Wilson

On 9/19/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Semantic drift: "khaki"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9/19/2007 03:39 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >FWIW, "Khaki" and "chino" are the same color to me.
>
> You haven't bought chinos in a while!  :-)  They come in all
> colors.  (Or do the messages in this chain prove that that is equally
> true of khakis?)
>
> Joel
>
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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
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                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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