[Ads-l] Reflections/query on the term "glove compartment" (of a car)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Below is a citation from 1931 providing a rationale for the name
"glove compartment". The accompanying picture shows gloves being
placed into the compartment (or being removed).

The Wikipedia/BBC Four/Dorothy Levitt claim (if accurate) suggests the
existence of earlier citations.

Date: January 1931
Periodical: Popular Science Monthly
Quote Page 61
Database: Google Books Full View
https://books.google.com/books?id=YCgDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22gloves+can%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
GLOVE COMPARTMENTS SET IN DASHBOARD

A GLOVE compartment at each end of the instrument board is an unusual
refinement of a luxurious new motor car. In these compartments driving
gloves can be kept so that they are always handy and their loss, when
not in use, is unlikely. The compartments also may be used to hold any
small personal articles, such as cigarettes or vanity case, while
driving.

[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 5:11 PM, Benjamin Barrett
<mail.barretts at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Reflections/query on the term "glove compartment" (of a car)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> According to Wikipedia =
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glove_compartment), the BBC says the term =
> was coined by Dorothy Levitt =
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Levitt), a racing driver who =
> lived from 1882 to 1922. That antedates it at least 17 years.
>
> According to http://www.ehow.com/about_5683371_called-glove-box_.html =
> <http://www.ehow.com/about_5683371_called-glove-box_.html>, the glove =
> box is not well documented.
>
> I tried looking the US Patent site, but text search is not possible =
> before 1976.
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
>> On 31 Jan 2016, at 13:40, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at MST.EDU> =
> wrote:
>>=20
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
>> Subject:      Reflections/query on the term "glove compartment" (of a =
> car)
>> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
>>=20
>> Yesterday a precocious child asked his father why a glove compartment =
> has t=3D
>> hat name, and the question was then passed along to me.=3D20
>>=20
>> The obvious answer, of course, is that the glove compartment was first =
> inte=3D
>> nded for gloves, but then a few more questions occurred to me:
>> 1) Why was the keeping of gloves (vs. other objects) in the car so =
> importan=3D
>> t? For this question I found a plausible answer on the Internet:=3D20
>> "Gloves were originally worn to keep the hands clean. Driving gloves =
> were c=3D
>> onsidered necessary equipment in early cars, many without a hard top, =
> to pr=3D
>> event the cooling effect of fast-moving air from numbing drivers' =
> hands."
>> That's a good answer. I'm convinced.=3D20
>> 2) But then why is the first attestation in OED3 from 1939? What about =
> thos=3D
>> e freezing hands during the previous decades? Here's OED3's entire =
> treatmen=3D
>> t of "glove compartment":
>> glove compartment   n. a recess in the dashboard of a motor car for =
> small a=3D
>> rticles such as gloves, etc.
>> 1939   R. Chandler Big Sleep xvii. 138,   I went to the car and got a =
> pair =3D
>> of handcuffs out of the glove compartment.
>> 1959   I. Fleming Goldfinger xii. 173   He took a small pair of =
> binoculars =3D
>> out of the glove compartment.
>>=20
>> And btw, neither of the two attestations in OED3 mentions gloves being =
> in t=3D
>> he glove compartment.
>> Is there any way to find out just when glove compartments were =
> installed in=3D
>> automobiles and when the term originated?=3D20
>
>
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