It’s a coat that you wear when it rains. It’s designed to keep you dry. Just like an umbrella is and gumboots are. And galoshes. Now where did that word come from?
Who owns a raincoat? My mum and dad ( both 83 years old ), probably my 98 year old mother-in-law and maybe a few greenies around the traps so they don’t get wet when planting or hugging trees in the rain.
I don’t think kids these days know what they are. Most don’t wear them, don’t use umbrellas and don’t have gumboots. Can’t blame them really because they aren’t very “cool” are they? When was the last groovy ( now there’s an old word ) raincoat did you see? Much better to be soaked to the skin than to be seen in anything as archaic as a raincoat. Even parka is a a dirty word in 2013. Are they related to car coats?
Remember the car coat? Now weren’t they a good idea. You wore them in the car. Not sure what you wore if you didn’t have a car, or what you did if you had a car but didn’t have a coat.
What about woollen jumpers? Does anyone wear them any more? Certainly not kids. They don’t even wear singlets. Once again, I can’t blame them really. There’s nothing like the look of a bit of singlet poking out from a shirt. Shirt? Shirt? Who wears shirts? You have do up the buttons on a shirt. That wastes far too much time.
So, it’s not the weather that’s bad, it’s dressing badly for the weather that’s the problem. Get yourself a singlet, woollen jumper, a raincoat, a pair of galoshes and an umbrella and you’ll be fine. Dorky, but fine. Dorky, but warm. Dorky, but dry.
So where does the word dork come from?