[Ads-l] windsock

Barretts Mail mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM
Sun Dec 24 04:43:41 UTC 2017


Both the Oxford Living Dictionaries (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/windsock <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/windsock>) and Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/windsock <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/windsock>) refer to the windsock as a tubelike device to indicate wind direction and strength especially at an airfield.

That definition doesn’t really capture what I know as a windsock, which is a decorative item. Google Images has lots of “koi windsocks,” for example. 

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koinobori <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koinobori>) calls koi windsocks “carp streamers.” Looking up streamer (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/streamer <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/streamer>), I see that certainly fits the definition of what I think of when I hear “windsock.” 

Here are other examples of windsocks of the streamer sort:

https://www.united-states-flag.com/patriotic-eagle-windsock.html <https://www.united-states-flag.com/patriotic-eagle-windsock.html>
https://www.premierkites.com/products/77751 <https://www.premierkites.com/products/77751>
https://www.funkyleisure.co.uk/classic-dragon-windsockkite--fire-5791-p.asp <https://www.funkyleisure.co.uk/classic-dragon-windsockkite--fire-5791-p.asp>

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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