A new photo of the beautiful city of Canterbury in Kent and surrounding area every day.

Friday 11 July 2008

Garderobe

Any idea of what a Garderobe is?
According to the word "Garderobe" comes from "Middle English, from Old French, from garder to watch, guard + robe clothing " and it dates back from 15th century.
It is also another word for a privy (a sort of toilet).
This one is in Dover Castle and they use artificial smells to give the visitors an idea of how smelly it used to be!

6 comments:

Coltrane_lives said...

I love word origins. Now if you flip this word around it morphs into something close to "(Th)e bored rag" which would be quite useful in a privy such as this one. Have a great weekend, Rose...sounds like you and PHX started it off already with a BANG!!!

Anonymous said...

Artificial smells? Now I've heard everything! But must make for quite an educational visit.

Any chance you will be in SF this year???? No pressure ;-)

Louis la Vache said...

Similar origin to garde manger. "Louis" prefers the smell of the garde manger to the garde robe, artificial or natural....

On a more pleasant note, "Louis" et Mme. la Vache celebrate their premier anniversaire today.

Ms M said...

That's quite interesting! Including the artificial smells...

Knoxville Girl said...

I think I would prefer leaving the smells to my imagination, not my nose. I've learned a new word today - thanks, Rose!

• Eliane • said...

Yes, it is a piece of furniture to hold your clothes in.
Interesting to see it used for a toilet in English, lol. A chance we don't have to experience the smell from here. ;)