I ran across the Russian phrase оконные переплеты, which I knew I’d seen before and looked up, but I couldn’t remember exactly what it meant, so I looked it up again. The dictionary said “window-sash.” I put it down, momentarily satisfied, until it came to me that I didn’t know exactly what a window-sash was either. So I looked that up, and Wiktionary told me it was “The opening part (casement) of a window usually containing the glass panes, hinged to the jamb, or sliding up and down as in a sash window.” (There’s a nice illustration labeled “Woman and boy standing at an open sash window.”) The OED (1909 entry, not yet revised) is wordier:
A frame, usually of wood, rebated and fitted with one or more panes of glass forming a window or part of a window; esp. a sliding frame or each of the two sliding frames of a sash window n. Also (? now only U.S.) applied to a casement.
In early use denoting a glazed frame of wood as distinguished from a leaded window, but now usually applied to a sliding frame in contradistinction to a casement. French sash, a French window (see French window n.).
The etymology is interesting:
From sashes, from French châssis (“frame (of a window or door)”), taken as a plural and -s trimmed off by the late 17th century.
The sad thing is that there was a whole discussion of sash windows at LH in 2010 (starting here), but I had entirely forgotten it.
Another nice etymology I ran across while looking up sash: sassy is “A modification of saucy.” (I probably knew that once, too.)
Will googling “saucy chassis” yield any hits, I wonder? Why yes, yes it will. (Not too many and none of them are obviously obscene.)
That reminds me of French salauds chalauds for “shallow bastards”. Clearly “peu profonds” would be pussyfooting the matter.
“When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.”
That may well be the literary context in which I first encountered “sash.”
there was a whole discussion of sash windows at LH in 2010
Ah, before my time. I could have contributed that I have owned two houses with sash windows, and lived in two others. (All in Yorkshire, houses more than a century old by 2010. As Sashura’ said, “an increasing rarity in England”.) Maintaining them needed all sorts of specialist equipment: typically the ‘sash cord’ holding the balance weight would disintegrate, needing locating (under many layers of probably toxic paint) the special panel to get access into the recessed groove it ran in. The workmanship that went into them!
French (casement) windows open inwards because there’s wooden shutters that close from the outside, isn’t it? Needing shelter from the sun is not a requirement in Blighty. Opening outwards wouldn’t have been an option in case(ment) of two of those houses: they fronted direct on to the street.
For the metathesis compare “sashay” from “chassé”.
Oh! Disney windows that regularly slam down on people’s hands or necks! I figured they must exist in reality somewhere…
The metathesis is intriguing. I wonder if it’s a regular sound law, actually.
I don’t know that I’ve ever lived anywhere that didn’t have sash windows, including college. I didn’t realize they weren’t as common outside the US. .
But оконные переплеты isn’t really sash windows (there weren’t any sliding windows in regular Russian homes anyway), it’s paned windows or more specifically the wooden latticework of the paned windows
WAry, both English and French, says that sashay comes from chassé by way of Verlan. That seems wrong. Sashay is attested from the mid to late 1800s. Verlan is a late 20th century phenomenon (unless they refer to any generic metathesis as such).
(I can see that sashes can be hinged too, not just “classic” sliding … but can they be immobile? The Russian word applies to all paned windows, including the ones which can’t be opened)
Nowadays of course there is no need to split a window into small panes, but sometimes faux panes are added by affixing wooden or plastic strips to the glass surface, which is called фальш-переплеты in Russian.
sassy
National pride compels me to mention that the Welsh selsig “sausage” is a loan from a derivative of the same Latin word.
The question “what have the Romans ever done for us?” thus receives an answer which should surely end all further debate.
(The English seem to have got the “sausage” concept indirectly, from the French.)
Снег идет, снег идет.
К белым звездочкам в буране
Тянутся цветы герани
За оконный переплет.
My guess is that the original source for the word переплет as applied to windows came from the meaning lattice. When someone laces their fingers together (may be more than one person) Russians say that fingers переплетены. Girls заплетают their hair in braids. And, of course, one sometimes gets oneself in a tangle, that is переплет.
Latin plect-; German flecht- “braid”
typically the ‘sash cord’ holding the balance weight would disintegrate, needing locating (under many layers of probably toxic paint) the special panel to get access into the recessed groove it ran in. The workmanship that went into them!
How timely! I spent a good part of yesterday rebuilding ~1870s windows with rotted sash cords. It’s not a fun job for someone finishing up their eighth decade of mischief, but young carpenters don’t seem to know how to remove the ‘ special panel ‘. Worse yet, they want to replace sash cords (a.k.a., clothesline ) with sash cord. Brass plumber’s chain fits nicely into the pulley wheel, can be attached to the pig iron weights with piano cord/picture cord, and double pointed tacks attach the chain to the grooves in the top of the sash.
Done well, the sash will never need cord replacement.
@D.O. apropos the verse link
Культура.рф
Извините, но ваш IP-адрес показался подозрительным для системы безопасности портала
English plait.
It’s a famous Pasternak poem; here’s a different link.
And in fact I quoted it at the start of 2018.
I know it by heart, LH. I remain a great Pasternak poetry fan. I just chuckled that the official treasure repository of Russian poetry is erecting walls to control access from the West.
And also apropos our malevolent times intruding into the ethereal world of the classic Russian poetry, two more things unraveled in recent days. A.D. Sukharev, one of the best lyrical poets of our age, died. I used to believe that he followed the path of Fet’s “Quasi una fantasia”, of “I want to stay away from your struggle” / “не хочу я ваших битв” but, reading his interview, I was stunned to discover that Sukharev actually expressed strongly held political positions, and even went as far as to side with Lysenko in the latter’s fight against genetics 🙁
And now Veronika Dolina, another battle-shy lyrical voice, has been arrested on her return to Russia 🙁
I know it by heart, LH.
Oh, I figured as much — I was just providing the information for those who might be curious.
A.D. Sukharev, one of the best lyrical poets of our age, died.
Do you mean this guy?
Yes, it was his nom de plume but that’s how he was known around there. As a poet, not as an obscure neurobiologist
A distant online friend some years back was describing an annual live reread of the Night Before Christmas poem, and he said that the reciter was obliged to insert, at the appropriate point, the phrase “I shouldn’t have eaten so much sash.”