About Cotton:on - whether this has any relevance or not, but in British English the phrase to cotton on (to something) means to realise, or to suddenly understand, to get it, to be in the know.
I wondered, being in Manchester, if it had something to do with attaching cotton to a spool. There is also the phrase 'to get weaving', meaning to get going, to get moving, to start something.
>>In 1822, English philologist Robert Nares reported that cotton had been used to mean "to succeed" and speculated that this use came from "the finishing of cloth, which when it cottons, or rises to a regular nap, is nearly or quite complete." The meaning of cotton shifted from "to get on well" to "to get on well together," and eventually to the sense we know today, "to take a liking to." The "understand" sense appeared later, in the early 20th century. <<
David and Jenny: "Cotton on" can have the same "understand" meaning in the U.S., although it's a bit old-fashioned and not much in use. What I don't cotton onto with the brand name is the colon. Just decoration?
Stonestown Mall was on my way to work down the Peninsula in the sixties, when I lived in San Francisco. I bought my first Joni Mitchell album there. From your report, it's now more like Pacific East Mall in Richmond, which is near enough to the Point Isabel Dog Park that I go there now and then. It has Asian restaurants, which you find in every downtown here, but also a big supermarket where you can get the ingredients to make your own Asian dishes.
About Cotton:on - whether this has any relevance or not, but in British English the phrase to cotton on (to something) means to realise, or to suddenly understand, to get it, to be in the know.
I came to the comments section to say the same thing. I thought it was a Southern-ism. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/cotton-on
I wondered, being in Manchester, if it had something to do with attaching cotton to a spool. There is also the phrase 'to get weaving', meaning to get going, to get moving, to start something.
Here's Merriam-Webster's note on “cotton” (verb):
>>In 1822, English philologist Robert Nares reported that cotton had been used to mean "to succeed" and speculated that this use came from "the finishing of cloth, which when it cottons, or rises to a regular nap, is nearly or quite complete." The meaning of cotton shifted from "to get on well" to "to get on well together," and eventually to the sense we know today, "to take a liking to." The "understand" sense appeared later, in the early 20th century. <<
Interesting, thank you.
David and Jenny: "Cotton on" can have the same "understand" meaning in the U.S., although it's a bit old-fashioned and not much in use. What I don't cotton onto with the brand name is the colon. Just decoration?
Stonestown Mall was on my way to work down the Peninsula in the sixties, when I lived in San Francisco. I bought my first Joni Mitchell album there. From your report, it's now more like Pacific East Mall in Richmond, which is near enough to the Point Isabel Dog Park that I go there now and then. It has Asian restaurants, which you find in every downtown here, but also a big supermarket where you can get the ingredients to make your own Asian dishes.
I love the Pacific East Mall and the 99 Ranch Market chain! Stonestown is more of an east-west hybrid, at least for now.
I'm not normally big for shopping, but joining you on these journalistic/anthropological excursions sound fun!