Author Topic: Identifying an old photograph  (Read 3243 times)

Offline Redroger

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Re: Identifying an old photograph
« Reply #9 on: Monday 20 December 10 14:18 GMT (UK) »
If the brickwork pattern is named "Diaper" then I guess it is named for its creator, who, if he is in fact American deserves all our sympathies as does his relative? who had his name given to the nappies.
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Offline oldtimer

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Re: Identifying an old photograph
« Reply #10 on: Monday 20 December 10 15:31 GMT (UK) »
"Diaper" isn't named after a person - it is a very old English word for material with a pattern of diapers on it i.e. diamond shapes. When, what we call nappies were first made, they were, I think, diamond shaped, so they were called originally diapers.

The name stayed in the US, but in Britain, they eventually became called nappies, short for napkins.

The word "faucet" has a similar history - many British people think of it as a strange American name for a tap, but it is actually an old English word that was gradually replaced by "tap".
Best wishes, Judy :-))


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Offline Redroger

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Re: Identifying an old photograph
« Reply #11 on: Monday 20 December 10 15:44 GMT (UK) »
So did the person I knew named Diaper get his name from nappies or diamonds? Or from the old  English version? Also I have seen the word faucet spelt Fawcett in American publications, and with a capital F. The implication to me was that a person named Fawcett had patented the tap, and it was named after him, in much the same way as Thomas Crapper became associated with toilets.
Ayres Brignell Cornwell Harvey Shipp  Stimpson Stubbings (all Cambs) Baumber Baxter Burton Ethards Proctor Stanton (all Lincs) Luffman (all counties)