smart, sensible

[George Thompson]

I'm with LH in connecting  "smart, sensible" with shoes.
My recollection is: at one time, 50 years ago or more, it was emblematic of
a certain type of woman to say she wore "sensible shoes" -- viz: she looked
like nothing much naturally, and did nothing to enhance her attractiveness,
preferring to be able to walk about and stand without inflicting herself
with corns.   "Smart, sensible" shoes,, on the other hand, were stylish,
and yet not a source of agony.
I don't think I've encountered "short, sensible haircut" -- but I work at
avoiding discussions of fashion -- but it seems to mean a haircut that
looks attractive, but is low maintainance, as opposed to one that requires
15 minutes of rubbing goose-grease into the hair and then twisting it into
a spiral over the forehead, giving the much-desired unicorn look.

GAT

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 6:57 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:

> Indigo Som wrote:
>
>> If I may trouble y'all for your thoughts... where did the common pair
>> "smart, sensible" come from,&/or why does it sound like it must have
>> originated somewhere specific (like an ad campaign)? Smart&  sensible
>> separately would seem to be almost interchangeable to most people, but
>> together they sound to me like an evocation of, hmm... down-to-earth,
>> old-fashioned common sense.
>>
>> Related, I think: short, sensible haircut.
>>
> In what context? To my mind, that pair is most often applied to clothing
> (or, as you mention, grooming). In that case, "sensible" means what
> you'd expect: comfortable, appropriate to the season, etc. But "smart"
> seems to me to mean well turned out, done "just so"; Webster's Third New
> International suggests "stylish, natty" in that situation.
>
> Jim Parish
>
> ------------------------------**------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

------------------------------------------------------------
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