drape
n.— «Enter Mr. Sapienza, the freshly recruited weight-training instructor from the Maryland Reform School for Boys. In less than a week, using nonviolent methods that probably would get him fired today, he had the “drapes” as they were called—elsewhere they were “hoods”—singing “Teen Angel” a cappella.» —“Murrieta takes ‘sex’ out of classes” by Phil Strickland North County Times (Escondido, California) Aug. 29, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city’s youngest readers, extolling the many benefits of libraries. One of the loveliest was from E.B. White, author of...
The new Downton Abbey movie is a luscious treat for fans of the public-television period piece, but how accurate is the script when it comes to the vocabulary of the early 20th century? It may be jarring to hear the word swag, but it was already at...