"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Thursday 20 November 2008

Vanity-sizing

I suppose that if I were to be technically correct I should have labelled this blog “Words and Phrases” because I also want to include the latter when appropriate.

One phrase I came across recently is ‘vanity-sizing’. This, it seems, is the attempt by stores to boost the egos of those who are size conscious (and in the process encourage sales) by assigning smaller sizes to clothes than is really the case. I think it’s also known as lying! Presumably it is contrary to the Trades Descriptions Acts but which size 12 is going to be the first to complain about being a size 8?

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