'Has Your Mother Sold Her Mangle?' Slang and the Dictionary | Merriam-Webster

[Dingbat]

'Has Your Mother Sold Her Mangle?' Slang and the Dictionary | Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/slang-and-the-dictionary

[Jerry Friedman]

On Friday, April 7, 2017 at 2:39:02 PM UTC-6, Dingbat wrote:
> 'Has Your Mother Sold Her Mangle?' Slang and the Dictionary | Merriam-Webster
> https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/slang-and-the-dictionary

Unfortunately it doesn't say what "Has your mother sold her mangle?"
meant. "Your clothes are dirty"?

--
Jerry Friedman

[Horace LaBadie]

In article <fc6761b8-2a32-41b3...@googlegroups.com>,

I seem to recall in a Mrs. Bradley mystery that a mangle was revealed to
be the hand wringer on a primitive washing machine. The wringer was
turned by a crank to get the water out of the garment, preparatory to
hanging the laundry for drying.

[Tony Cooper]

Rumpled or sodden, not dirty.

Mangles were first a machine, or attachment to a washing machine, that
squeezed water out of wet clothes by passing them through rollers.
Then, the same concept was used to iron large items.

The washing machine my grandmother used had a mangle attached. She
also had a mangle that she used to press bedsheets. The latter had
padded and heated rollers.


--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

[charles]

In article <hlabadie-104D54...@aioe.org>,

or possibly between washing and rinsing. My parents' house, built around
1900, had mounting points for a mangle between the two deep sinks. Mangles
were around well before washing machines were invented,

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

[Ross]

I wondered and thought the same. Partridge (Dict. of Catch Phrases) is
not much help:
"An urban, chiefly Londoners', c.p. of no precise application; rather low;
since the 1830's. There is apparently some reference to a woman taking
in washing..or no longer doing so."

But here's OED: "a discourteous catchphrase, perh. deriving from a popular
song and said to allude to the former practice amongst the poor by which
the possessor of a domestic mangle might derive a small income from taking
in washing. Obs. N.E.D. (1905) notes: ‘The question..was at one time the commonest piece of “chaff” used by London street-boys.’"

So it might be a taunt about poverty?

(Earliest citation Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 1836)

[Tony Cooper]

Some of us here are old enough not have to have read about them to
know what they were. My grandmother's, though, was electrically
driven and not hand-cranked. All mod cons in Naptown.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

We have discussed this here some time in the last few years. In BrE the
attachment to a washing machine was known as a "wringer". A "mangle" was
a freestanding device that was more heavy-duty in construction and
appearance.

This is a mangle:
http://www.marchmuseum.co.uk/images/edu2.jpg
from:
http://www.marchmuseum.co.uk/education.html


This is a washer with wringer:
http://s117.photobucket.com/user/Grover-LeBlanc/media/Old%20Times/washer-wringer.jpg.html



--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Fri, 7 Apr 2017 14:30:00 -0700 (PDT), Ross <benl...@ihug.co.nz>
wrote:

Or might it be a comment that the mother no longer needs to earn money
by taking in washing?

[Charles Bishop]

In article <dj0gecddut12akqjv...@4ax.com>,

Tony Cooper <tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 7 Apr 2017 14:03:44 -0700 (PDT), Jerry Friedman
> <jerry_f...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >On Friday, April 7, 2017 at 2:39:02 PM UTC-6, Dingbat wrote:
> >> 'Has Your Mother Sold Her Mangle?' Slang and the Dictionary |
> >> Merriam-Webster
> >> https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/slang-and-the-dictionary
> >
> >Unfortunately it doesn't say what "Has your mother sold her mangle?"
> >meant. "Your clothes are dirty"?
>
> Rumpled or sodden, not dirty.
>
> Mangles were first a machine, or attachment to a washing machine, that
> squeezed water out of wet clothes by passing them through rollers.
> Then, the same concept was used to iron large items.

And this is why, reading British novels, I thought a mangle-wurtzel was
a piece of farm machinery.

Working in context was a bit difficult, though.

>
> The washing machine my grandmother used had a mangle attached. She
> also had a mangle that she used to press bedsheets. The latter had
> padded and heated rollers.

--

charles

[Hen Hanna]

Thank you... very helpful.

We still talk about "dirty laundry".

> OED: "a discourteous catchphrase, perh. deriving from a popular song

Does anyone know which song this might be?


I'm also interested in other, old [Yo mama] taunts.

HH




not the recent ones:

Yo mama is so poor that she lives in a two story Dorrito bag with a dog named Chip.

Yo mama is so poor that I went through her front door and ended up in the back yard.

Yo mama so poor she went to McDonald's and put a milkshake on layaway.

Yo mama so poor your family ate cereal with a fork to save milk.

Yo mama so poor her face is on ...

[Tony Cooper]

My grandmother's washing-machine-attached mangle was cleverly
designed. The rollers were set to touch each other, but when an item
of clothing was passed through it forced the rollers apart, and that
was the switch that started the rollers rolling electrically. When
the item passed completely through, the rollers touched again and the
switch kicked off.

If the item was retracted - pulled out - the rollers stopped. That
was a safety feature to stop the fingers from being mangled.

The sheet mangle, though, was controlled by bar that was brought down
to activate the heated rollers.

[Rich Ulrich]

On Fri, 07 Apr 2017 23:07:09 +0100, "Peter Duncanson [BrE]"
<ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:

>On Fri, 07 Apr 2017 17:26:29 -0400, Tony Cooper
><tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 7 Apr 2017 14:03:44 -0700 (PDT), Jerry Friedman
>><jerry_f...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>>On Friday, April 7, 2017 at 2:39:02 PM UTC-6, Dingbat wrote:
>>>> 'Has Your Mother Sold Her Mangle?' Slang and the Dictionary | Merriam-Webster
>>>> https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/slang-and-the-dictionary
>>>
>>>Unfortunately it doesn't say what "Has your mother sold her mangle?"
>>>meant. "Your clothes are dirty"?
>>
>>Rumpled or sodden, not dirty.
>>
>>Mangles were first a machine, or attachment to a washing machine, that
>>squeezed water out of wet clothes by passing them through rollers.
>>Then, the same concept was used to iron large items.
>>
>>The washing machine my grandmother used had a mangle attached. She
>>also had a mangle that she used to press bedsheets. The latter had
>>padded and heated rollers.
>>
>We have discussed this here some time in the last few years. In BrE the
>attachment to a washing machine was known as a "wringer". A "mangle" was
>a freestanding device that was more heavy-duty in construction and
>appearance.
>
>This is a mangle:
>http://www.marchmuseum.co.uk/images/edu2.jpg

For a while in the 1950s, my mother had a mangle-wringer
to use while washing. Drying was on a line outdoors. With dry
winds constant (in the panhandle of Texas), drying was quick.

For years longer, she had a mangle-iron that was similar to
these big things. It know she used it for sheets and pillowcases.
https://www.pinterest.com/dottiekn/manglesironers/

I don't know if doing shirts would be more convenient than
using a regular steam iron, but you would be sitting down.

I don't remember seeing one at anyone else's house, but I
think ours was tucked away in a corner in a bedroom when
not in use.

>from:
>http://www.marchmuseum.co.uk/education.html
>
>
>This is a washer with wringer:
>http://s117.photobucket.com/user/Grover-LeBlanc/media/Old%20Times/washer-wringer.jpg.html


--

Rich Ulrich

[Robert Bannister]

Mangles were usually separate from the washing machine if there even was
a washing machine. Is a hand wringer for wringing your hands?

--
Robert B. born England a long time ago;
Western Australia since 1972

[Peter Moylan]

Sometimes. I imagine that many of us have at some time or another caught
our fingers in the mangle. Some mangles -- the ones run from the washing
machine motor -- would pop open in such a case, but I suspect that that
didn't happen in the hand-cranked kind.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

[Charles Bishop]

In article <3d2832dd-00d8-4e4e...@googlegroups.com>,

Hen Hanna <henh...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> I'm also interested in other, old [Yo mama] taunts.
>
> HH
>

How interested?

http://www.laughfactory.com/jokes/yo-momma-jokes

is a site, and there were others that came up in a web search.

--
charles, do you throw parties?

[bill van]

In article <oc9fde$4fv$1...@dont-email.me>,

But it would be foolish to keep cranking it with one hand after the
other had been caught in the mangle.
--
bill

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Yes, but some people are no more intelligent than the poster who keeps
on spitting out the same stuff long after it's been shown to be wrong.


--
athel

[Janet]

In article <hlabadie-104D54...@aioe.org>,
hlab...@nospam.com says...

Mangles long predated washing machines. My mother had a mangle long
before she had a washing machine.

Janet

[Janet]

In article <billvan-2C0F4B...@88-209-239-213.giganet.hu>,
bil...@delete.shaw.ca says...

They were too hard for one person to operate. One person cranked at a
steady speed, the other fed in the laundry between the rollers, and
risked getting their fingers caught. It bloody well hurt. The pressure
of a mangle could easily crush buttons; so the buttons on mens shirts
and pyjamas were removable. Taking out and replacing the buttons at
every wash was another time-consuming task.

I still have some old linen pillow cases with hand made all-linen
buttons that could withstand mangling so didnt need to be removed.

Janet

[Peter T. Daniels]

Oh, he doesn't like it when it's done to him.

What ever happened to "turn about is fair play"?

[Peter Moylan]

I see that you've figured out which poster bill was referring to. Well done.

[Don Phillipson]

"Janet" <nob...@home.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.3352eb7...@news.individual.net...

> Mangles long predated washing machines. My mother had a mangle long
> before she had a washing machine.

Washing machines for family use did not enter the British
market until after the Second World War (documented in the
"Ideal Home" exhibitions one of the London newspapers used
to convene.) As late as 1939 new houses were built in
Britain with hemispherical copper tubs (heated by coal or
wood underneath) for the weekly laundry, usually next to
the back door. Many houses also had a "drying rack"
suspended on pulleys from the kitchen ceiling, that provided
about 20 feet of drying line space in a warm place (in a damp climate.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[charles]

In article <ocarqv$c1d$2...@news.albasani.net>,

We still have one of those.

[Jack Campin]

>>>> a mangle was revealed to be the hand wringer on a primitive
>>>> washing machine. The wringer was turned by a crank to get the
>>>> water out of the garment, preparatory to hanging the laundry
>>>> for drying.
>>> Mangles were usually separate from the washing machine if there even
>>> was a washing machine. Is a hand wringer for wringing your hands?
>> Sometimes. I imagine that many of us have at some time or another caught
>> our fingers in the mangle. Some mangles -- the ones run from the washing
>> machine motor -- would pop open in such a case, but I suspect that that
>> didn't happen in the hand-cranked kind.
> But it would be foolish to keep cranking it with one hand after the
> other had been caught in the mangle.

I've still got a mangle out in the garage. I made a wooden mount for
it to fit over the bath. I can't recall when I last used it or what
I last used it for.

My grandma managed to mash one of her fingers in a hand mangle. It
never quite went back to its original shape. (Her finger, that is).

Twin tub washing machines (common in New Zealand when I was a kid) often
had a wringer on top. You might well use it before hanging the clothes
up to dry, but its position meant you could also wring the soapy water
out before transferring the clothes to the rinsing tub; the drainage
channel could be flipped to direct the squeezed-out water into either
the washing tub or the rinsing tub. Made for greater efficiency in the
use of water and the energy used to heat it.

An old Scots word for a mangle was "calender". They were often large
and kept for public use. You will occasionally read of fabric being
"calendered", that was what it had been put through.

Where does the phrase "we haven't had so much fun since Auntie put
her tit through the mangle" come from?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07895 860 060 <http://www.campin.me.uk> Twitter: JackCampin

[Janet]

In article <ocarqv$c1d$2...@news.albasani.net>, e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca
says...

I have one of those pulley ceiling drying racks, original to the
house. We use it for drying silk, wool and socks, and airing.


Janet.

[bill van]

In article <MPG.3352ed4...@news.individual.net>,

Janet <nob...@home.com> wrote:

> In article <billvan-2C0F4B...@88-209-239-213.giganet.hu>,
> bil...@delete.shaw.ca says...
> >

> > But it would be foolish to keep cranking it with one hand after the
> > other had been caught in the mangle.
>
> They were too hard for one person to operate. One person cranked at a
> steady speed, the other fed in the laundry between the rollers, and
> risked getting their fingers caught. It bloody well hurt. The pressure
> of a mangle could easily crush buttons; so the buttons on mens shirts
> and pyjamas were removable. Taking out and replacing the buttons at
> every wash was another time-consuming task.
>
> I still have some old linen pillow cases with hand made all-linen
> buttons that could withstand mangling so didnt need to be removed.
>

I plead ignorance. I do remember a large wooden tub with a mangle that
sat on a table behind our house in the early 1950s. We had an enclosed
space at the back of the house that had a coal-storage area at one end
and two large stone sinks at the other; I think the sinks were used for
laundry, washing in one sink, rinsing in the other. Then I assume the
mangle was used to get most of the water out before the laundry was hung
on a line.

I must have been around five years old, couldn't have reached the mangle
if I tried, and probably paid no attention to its use. Or it might be
that such things were done when I was safely out of the way at
kindergarten.
--
bill

[Sam Plusnet]

The only phrase I know of with mention of a mangle was the rather crude
one which was current during WWII.
"The biggest surprise since Ma got her tits caught in the mangle."

Google books tells me that Nicholas Monsarrat used it in "The Cruel Sea".

--
Sam Plusnet

[Richard Tobin]

In article <de3gec551nkehbm7s...@4ax.com>,

Peter Duncanson [BrE] <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:

>Or might it be a comment that the mother no longer needs to earn money
>by taking in washing?

Perhaps a suggestion that someone is getting above their station?

-- Richard

[Peter T. Daniels]

> >> on spitting out the, same stuff long after it's been shown to be wrong.

> > Oh, he doesn't like it when it's done to him.
>
> I see that you've figured out which poster bill was referring to. Well done.

Only because there is so much insistence that "they" are right and I am wrong,
but sometimes they finally understand and see the light.

bill, for instance, has never engaged in such behavior of insistence.

[Peter T. Daniels]

"get her tit caught in a wringer" is a standard expression for an unpleasant situation.

[Robert Bannister]

It didn't happen with the electrically operated one attached to our
washing machine when my (then) five year old sister caught her arm in
it. Her little arm was too thin to activate the safety mechanism. Her
arm is not noticeably flat today.

[Ross]

Or slightly earlier, also from GB:

“Our shop covers maintenance on the entire Road,” says Andell promptly. “Whenever any crew gets a tit caught in the wringer they holler for us.”
-Welding Journal, Volume 24, p.88 (1945)

[Horace LaBadie]

In article <ektcv4...@mid.individual.net>,

Hair caught in the wringer was the most common accident, at least from
the reports I recall from my childhood.

[Mark Brader]

Jack Campin:

> My grandma managed to mash one of her fingers in a hand mangle.

You couldn't've said "mangle" there?

> An old Scots word for a mangle was "calender". They were often large
> and kept for public use. You will occasionally read of fabric being
> "calendered", that was what it had been put through.

That word is also used in papermaking. "Supercalendered" paper is
extra-smooth because it's undergone more of this type of processing.
--
Mark Brader "Nicely self-consistent. (Pay no attention to
Toronto that D-floating number behind the curtain!)"
m...@vex.net -- Chris Torek, on pasta

My text in this article is in the public domain.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

I haven't seen a mangle or wringer for decades.

ISTR that mangles had solid wooden rollers. The more modern wringers had
rubber rollers that had some flexibility.

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[GordonD]

I don't know where it originated but I have a vague memory of Daley
Thompson saying it after winning the decathlon somewhere. (Moscow 1980?)
--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland

[musika]

I first heard it here.
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: "Derek and Clive (Live)
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZEEgIti8sM>

--
Ray
UK

[Mack A. Damia]

On Sun, 9 Apr 2017 17:04:54 +0100, musika <mUs...@NOSPAMexcite.com>
wrote:

Derek & Clive -
"Jump"

[ from the album "(Live)" (1976) ]

DEREK:
(plays piano and sings:)

#As I was walking down the street one day
I saw a house on fire
There was man, shouting and screaming at an upper-story window
To the crowd that was gathered there below
For he was sore afraid

#Jump! You fucker, jump!
Jump into this here blanket what we are holding
And you will be all right
He jumped, hit the deck, broke his fucking neck -
There was no blanket

#Laugh?! We nearly shat!
We had not laughed so much since Grandma died
Or Auntie Mabel caught her left tit in the mangle
We are miserable sinners
Fi-i-ilthy fuckers

#Ahhhrrrr-soles

http://www.phespirit.info/derekandclive/live_13.htm

[Robert Bannister]

I barely remember wooden rollers. Rubber or rubber-coated (later
plastic) rollers came in while I was still quite small myself.

[Quinn C]

* bill van:

I think my mom's mangle was operated by pedals. That was a large,
heated one, more or less like Tony described his grandma's.

--
Some things are taken away from you, some you leave behind-and
some you carry with you, world without end.
-- Robert C. Wilson, Vortex (novel), p.31

[Snidely]

On Tuesday or thereabouts, Quinn C declared ...

I've only dealt with wringers, specifically the one on my aunt's 1950s
washing machine, still in use in 1965 and maybe unto 1970. Something
like this, although it may never have gotten into the kitchen:
<URL:http://americansremember.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/GE-wringer-Washer-Print-Ad-260x300.jpg>

/dps

--
Rule #0: Don't be on fire.
In case of fire, exit the building before tweeting about it.
(Sighting reported by Adam F)

[Snidely]

Just this Wednesday, Snidely explained that ...

Not a mangled story, but I recall a magazine excerpt from Steinbeck's
_Travels With Charlie_ where he mentioned putting dirty clothes in a
plastic bucket (the 5-gallon type with a snap-on lid), lashing the
bucket somewhere at the back of his vehicle, and after a day's driving
having well-scrubbed clothes.

/dps

--
Killing a mouse was hardly a Nobel Prize-worthy exercise, and Lawrence
went apopleptic when he learned a lousy rodent had peed away all his
precious heavy water.
_The Disappearing Spoon_, Sam Kean

[Cheryl]

Pre-soaking in the extreme! I think it would work, though. Pre-soaking
certainly helps clean clothes, and a bit of agitation can only help.
I've been without a washing machine a few times in my life, and if you
have a car, that sounds great.

--
Cheryl

[Charles Bishop]

In article <mn.657f7e140fb74924.127094@snitoo>,

If you get a bucket with a tight fitting lid, you put the clothes in the
bucket with soap and water, put the lid on, and then lay the bucket on
its side in the bed of the truck. with travel, the clothes slosh around
in the bucket. Repeat with clean water twice and the clothes are rinsed
as well.

Of course Steinbeck was in a camper without this option.

--
charles

[Sam Plusnet]

Do try to combine this with cooking a salmon strapped to the exhaust
manifold.
Can we attach a butter churn anywhere?

--
Sam Plusnet

[Joy Beeson]

On Thu, 13 Apr 2017 06:16:22 -0230, Cheryl <cper...@mun.ca> wrote:

> > Not a mangled story, but I recall a magazine excerpt from Steinbeck's
> > _Travels With Charlie_ where he mentioned putting dirty clothes in a
> > plastic bucket (the 5-gallon type with a snap-on lid), lashing the
> > bucket somewhere at the back of his vehicle, and after a day's driving
> > having well-scrubbed clothes.
>
> Pre-soaking in the extreme! I think it would work, though. Pre-soaking
> certainly helps clean clothes, and a bit of agitation can only help.
> I've been without a washing machine a few times in my life, and if you
> have a car, that sounds great.

Recently, I opened a just-purchased bottle of tonic and discovered
that a bicycle also does an excellent job of agitation.

--
Joy Beeson, U.S.A., mostly central Hoosier,
some Northern Indiana, Upstate New York, Florida, and Hawaii
joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

[RH Draney]

On 4/13/2017 7:41 PM, Joy Beeson wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Apr 2017 06:16:22 -0230, Cheryl <cper...@mun.ca> wrote:
>
>>> Not a mangled story, but I recall a magazine excerpt from Steinbeck's
>>> _Travels With Charlie_ where he mentioned putting dirty clothes in a
>>> plastic bucket (the 5-gallon type with a snap-on lid), lashing the
>>> bucket somewhere at the back of his vehicle, and after a day's driving
>>> having well-scrubbed clothes.
>>
>> Pre-soaking in the extreme! I think it would work, though. Pre-soaking
>> certainly helps clean clothes, and a bit of agitation can only help.
>> I've been without a washing machine a few times in my life, and if you
>> have a car, that sounds great.
>
> Recently, I opened a just-purchased bottle of tonic and discovered
> that a bicycle also does an excellent job of agitation.

Is this not said to be how cheese was invented?...milk in a goatskin bag
placed between the saddle and warm body of a camel during a long ride
across the desert?...r

[J. J. Lodder]

Joy Beeson <jbe...@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:

> On Thu, 13 Apr 2017 06:16:22 -0230, Cheryl <cper...@mun.ca> wrote:
>
> > > Not a mangled story, but I recall a magazine excerpt from Steinbeck's
> > > _Travels With Charlie_ where he mentioned putting dirty clothes in a
> > > plastic bucket (the 5-gallon type with a snap-on lid), lashing the
> > > bucket somewhere at the back of his vehicle, and after a day's driving
> > > having well-scrubbed clothes.
> >
> > Pre-soaking in the extreme! I think it would work, though. Pre-soaking
> > certainly helps clean clothes, and a bit of agitation can only help.
> > I've been without a washing machine a few times in my life, and if you
> > have a car, that sounds great.
>
> Recently, I opened a just-purchased bottle of tonic and discovered
> that a bicycle also does an excellent job of agitation.

A friend of mine discovered to her chagrin
that a bicycle basket also does an excellent job
as a camera destroyer,

Jan

[Peter T. Daniels]

Wouldn't such a bag burst from the pressure?

[Reinhold {Rey} Aman]

Attention-whoring master-baiter PeteY "Genital Herpes" Daniels asked:

>
> Wouldn't such a bag burst from the pressure?
>

Please ignore the Loony Linguist's stupid question. Thanks.

See the lonesome attention-whore:
http://aman.members.sonic.net/PeteY-Doody.jpg

--
~~~ Reinhold {Rey} Aman ~~~
The Conscience of AUE