Contrary to the rumours, I’m not really interested in frocks. Women’s fashion is baffling enough without trying to understand the difference between a frock and a dress – if indeed there is any difference – or why nobody seems to be able to use the word without an ironic smirk.
No, what interests me more is the antonym ‘defrock’, which is what happens to priests when they’ve been bad. In fact, ‘defrock’ is not an antonym of ‘frock’ because one is a verb and the other is a noun. There is no verb ‘to frock’. So how do you get ‘defrocked’?
It conjures visions of priests being caught wearing dresses and having them ripped off by a delegation from the Vatican, which I’m sure doesn’t happen any more. (Does anyone else have these visions, by the way, or is it only me?) But that’s the problem that can arise when a word goes through several changes of meaning. We might know a frock today as a light, loose fitting dress of the sort that a young girl might wear to the seaside, but in the 14th century it meant a monk’s habit and came to be used for the loose cloak worn by a priest.
Hence, defrocking being the removal of the trappings and rights of priesthood. It all makes sense when you look into it. It’s just not as funny as the idea of a priest in a dress.
All that apart, it has to be said that ‘frock’ is a more interesting word than ‘dress’ and the beauty of the English language is that it gives us these alternatives to use whenever we want to liven things up a bit. Dorothy Parker liked to liven things up. This is the literary genius responsible for such witticisms as,
“If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.”
And,
“Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”
In her poem Faute de Mieux (meaning For Want of a Better Alternative), she chose ‘frock’ over ‘dress’:
Travel, trouble, music, art,
A kiss, a frock, a rhyme
I never said they feed my heart,
But still they pass my time.
And that’s good enough for me.
This week’s word was proposed by Pippa at Epoole, the world’s finest finishes firm.
