"Sweater-vest"

[Amy West]

On 3/29/12 12:02 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Date:    Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:41:32 -0400
> From:    "Joel S. Berson"<Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Re: "Sweater-vest"
>
> At 3/28/2012 11:13 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>> >  >And that tells me something
>> >particular: it's usually v-neck and can be buttoned or buttonless.
>> >
>> >I can see the theoretical distinction, but "sleeveless sweater" told me
>> >exactly the same thing.
> I don't have "sweater vest" in my vocabulary, so I imagine it as
> buttoned, like a "vest"  (e.g. in a three-piece suit; "waistcoat" to
> Wikipedia and perhaps Amy), to distinguish it from a "sleeveless
> sweater", which to me is always buttonless and which I put on and
> take off over my head.  But your method may vary.
>
> Joel
>
>

Interesting distinction that you're making: "sweater" = pullover; "vest"
= button-up. Whereas to me "vest" simply indicates the area of the body
covered (torso). Which is why "sleeved waistcoat" threw me for a loop
last week. Just what the difference between it and just plain old "coat"
was wasn't clear to me at first. (And I don't use "waistcoat" except as
historical terminology; "vest" is my norm.) I'll add "sleeveless
sweater" to my passive clothing lexicon. (And that's parsed as [passive]
[clothing lexicon], not [passive clothing] [lexicon]. Trying to cut you
off at the pass, guys.)

--
---Amy West

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