Date: Wed, 8 Oct 1997 12:16:51 -0600

From: Joan Houston Hall jdhall[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]FACSTAFF.WISC.EDU

Subject: Re: widow's weeds



DARE's files have two nineteenth-century quotes for weeds:



1890 Holley _Samantha among the Brethren_ 140 NY, He took it into his head

to have a deeper weed at the last minute, so I fixed it on. He had the weed

come up to the top of his hat and lap over. I never see so tall a weed.



[Here it seems to mean a kind of scarf worn by a mourner at a funeral.]





1899 (1912) Green _VA Folk-Speech_ 478, Weed, n. A garment of any sort,

especially the whole garment worn at any time. Now commonly in the plural,

and chiefly in the phrase: "Widow's weeds."



No DARE Informants offered the term.