Thursday, January 28, 2016

"What Meanest Thou?" // #1

I'm on the road this week, but wanted to give a quick posting update here and also launch a new blog series!

In short, I'm moving our author interviews to a bimonthly schedule this year and on the off months I'll either be sharing writing updates, book reviews, historical research, or studies of commonly confused words/historical terms. Sound interesting? :)

So here's for our first "What Meanest Thou?"


In December (while proofreading A Flame Shall Spring) I delved into a quick fact check/refresher course on the nature of doublets, tunics, and jerkins. Sometimes it's easy to forget specific terms in the heat of composition (either that or my brain just blanks ;)) and regardless, it can always be helpful to have everything pulled together in one place!

#1: Doublet

A man's short close-fitting padded jacket, commonly worn from the 14th to the 17th century.



#2: Jerkin
A man's close-fitting jacket, typically made of leather. (Can also be sleeveless.)



#3: Tunic

(This term particularly morphed over time, but through the ancient and medieval periods it remained relatively the same.)
A gown-like outer garment, with or without sleeves and sometimes belted.



So! Did you find that short little summary helpful? Intriguing? Old news? Let me know in the comments! :)


Heidi Peterson is a lover of wide-spreading land, summer dust, white pounding waterfalls, and mountain tops; also of good dark coffee and rich stories. Most of all she's a lover of the One who is the Word, the Word made flesh. You can visit her additional blog (where she shares more about books, movies, and further marvels of life) at: Along the Brandywine.

Visit and contact at: Sharing the Journey // Along the Brandywine // ladyofanorien(at)gmail(dot)com

19 comments:

  1. Very nice refresher course. When I was editing Stone Curse, I borrowed a college textbook from a friend who majored in clothing design... it was called clothing through the ages or something and was super helpful for deciding what period I wanted the clothing in that story to resemble. Since it was a fairy-tale not set in our world, I used different eras for the men's and women's clothing, but it was really nice to have the ability to flip through the pages and have all the terms right there.

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    1. Jenelle,
      Thank you! And that sounds like it must have been most helpful. Incidentally, I'm actually partway through Five Enchanted Roses and super looking forward to delving into Stone Curse. I'll be looking out for the clothing descriptions particularly now! ;)

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  2. That was interesting! I get those words mixed up myself sometimes. Often, there are those words that I know their general meaning, but sometimes have to refresh my specific definition ;)

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    1. Olivia,
      Exactly! And sometimes there are those definitions you feel like you know, but then sometimes they tend to go peskily evasive right at the critical moment. :D

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  3. Oh, this is cool! And I love the title you picked ;-)

    I'm glad you explained the definitions, also--because, like Olivia, I kind of had a vague-ish idea what they meant, but I couldn't have told you precisely :-) Now I can!

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    1. jessica,
      Thank you and I'm so happy you like it!! :)

      And oh, yay -- perfect! Mission accomplished then! ;D

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  4. Thank you! Could you do one on different types of things that women would wear as well? It'd be really helpful!

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    1. Rosie,
      You're welcome! And that sounds like a great idea -- were there any particular terms you were thinking of?

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    2. Mmmm - well, like kirtle, smock, surcoat, shifts, that sort of thing. And maybe what the different classes would wear for jewelry :)

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    3. Rosie,
      Perfect and thank you! I've officially booked it for March. :D

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  5. Doublet and jerkin often get swapped in my head (and when I was a teen, I confused "jerkin" and "bodkin" a lot -- oops! A bodkin is a skinny dagger...). Nice refresher!

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    1. Hamlette,
      Yes, those two particularly! And (I'm laughing) this is crazy, but likewise! I think I just figured out what a bodkin was in the last year or so. ;D Hee. Dear me. . .

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    2. There's that line in Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy where he says, "he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin." And I was sooooooo confused by that as a teen, wondering if "a bare bodkin" was an undecorated jacket, or if it meant taking your jacket off, or unbuttoning it to bare your chest and then stab yourself, or what. FINALLY looked it up once and for all and learned that I was confusing it with jerkin. Hee!

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    3. Hamlette,
      VERY funny! *grinning* I think my vague idea was that it was something more in the nature of a spindle-ish item hanging from a lady's girdle. (I'm not exactly sure what I thought it was for, but I guess I wasn't actually terribly terribly off. ;D)

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    4. P.S. Now I'm really laughing.... Here's Google's definition for a bodkin:

      1. A blunt, thick needle with a large eye used especially for drawing tape or cord through a hem.
      2. A small pointed instrument used to pierce cloth or leather.
      3. A long pin used for fastening hair.

      All of which a lady might very well carry! (Hee. I think we're on to something here -- this'll definitely have to surface in a word study again sometime. :D)

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    5. Heee! Yes, in Shakespeare's day it was a sort of fancified dagger with a skinny, rounded blade, so shaped like an awl or a thick hatpin or giant needle -- and definitely something a lady could carry!

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  6. Eek, Heidi!! I did some VERY similar research while editing my book. haha Great minds... ;) But, your post just made it even more clear and easy to remember in my head. This is a GREAT idea for a series!! :D

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    1. Natalie,
      *grinning* Hee. Very funny, indeed. ;D

      And oh, wonderful -- I'm so glad. And thank you! :)

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