No pictures because I'm not even sure what would be a good picture to go with these two minor language rants. A peaceful woodland scene with a stream or waterfall I guess to calm the mind and allow you to get over the struggles with English. Perhaps I will add one later. Rhetorical question - why is English so imprecise and why are internet searches even worse?
This morning I started working on a post on Georgian garb dealing with coverings for the lower body. The first issue is that this gets me into the American versus British English difference. What are pants? What are trousers? Are they the same? What about shorts? Then you throw in all of the confusion about underwear. If it would have historically been the layer closest to the body it's underwear. Yet it sounds very different to our modern ears, or at least to my ears, to say you are going out in your underwear versus going out in a pair of pants that simply happen to be under a longer shirt and is very likely to be under another outer garment.
To avoid confusion it feels like I either have to define a bunch of terms or keep talking about small clothes or body linen which sound rather twee to my ears even though they are likely (I haven't checked) period appropriate. I have some Georgian terms that might be period but no one knows them and they run squarely into the pants/trousers/shorts and underwear to be hidden versus first layer that is likely hidden but isn't embarrassing if it shows in some contexts issues. All minor issues but problematic when you are someone who already tends towards the verbose!
The second issue that popped up was worse. I've seen it before but not quite as blatantly. While searching for pants from the Caucasus my results included references to Caucasian being used as a racial distinction. Not in a horrible way but it was just enough to slightly sour my mood. The medieval Georgians seem to be about par for the course; fighting, allying with, marrying, and trading with everyone around them whether Christian or Islamic. Their modern nationalism is a problem; perhaps understandable when you look at Ottoman, Russian, and Soviet control but still not defensible.
None of these issues are racial. But obsolete 19th century physical anthropology and American racism have made the term Caucasian problematic even when used in a perfectly normal way of referring to people who dwell in and around the area of the Caucasus Mountains. I suppose it isn't quite to the level of having to avoid decorative motifs co-opted by hate groups but it's still not something that I want to think about when I want to blather on about research on my persona's surroundings.
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