Some seven years ago the author, then connected with a clothing
manufacturing concern as advertising manager, wrote a compact little
“Clothes Dictionary” which was presented to the trade with the
compliments of the publishers. All definitions were short and to the
point, many were humorous, and all were within a necessarily limited
scope of interest. There had never been anything like it and the book
“caught on” immediately, with the result that the author thereupon went
to work seriously to compile a larger, fuller, more comprehensiv
dictionary along similar lines.
The present book is the result. Six years or more (as time permitted)
have been spent in reading, listening and correspondence for new terms
and new meanings.
Naturally, as all first compilations must inevitably be, the book is,
frankly, lacking many definitions, particularly of terms in popular use
long ago, and doubtless, many of today. Wherefore no claim is made that
the book is complete, but it is believed that it is reasonably so—or
usably so.
In compilation the main purpose has been to make the book comprehensiv
(covering about everything of men’s wear, use and interest) and,
contrary to most dictionaries, encyclopedias and the like, interesting.
Altho the title specifies “men’s wear”, the book broadly covers many
items of women’s wear (as many fabrics, etc., are common to both sexes),
and except that items of strictly women’s wear have been omitted, might
have been entitled “A Dictionary of Apparel”, and should, therefore, be
of quite as much interest to the straight drygoods merchant as to the
modern clothier.
The definitions are not tiresomely long—not any of them—but all are of
sufficient length to cover essentials and are accurate and reliable;
and, altho the dictionary is somewhat encyclopedic, it is not intended
that it shall take the place of any encyclopedia. A feature of its
forerunner that may be appreciated is that many of the less important
and more obvious terms are dismist quite briefly or else freely or
facetiously handled—enough so to induce one to search the pages for
these alone.
Obviously, no hard and fast rules could be set to govern the work. Each
term had to be considered in itself and explained so clearly, without
waste (or skimping) of words, as to be understandable without the aid of
pictures. That there has been no necessity for illustrations and that
the book has been otherwise brightened without them the author considers
somewhat of an achievment.
In a word, it has been the aim of the author to make simply a handy
reference book, “popular” rather than learned, helping one over
transient needs, leaving the wearying technical dissertations to text
books, encyclopedias, etc. If this has been accomplisht, there is great
cause for satisfaction to