4 ms·
I'm from the US and in my 50s, and read quite a bit, but never encountered the word 'bespoke' until a couple of years ago. Not sure whether it's rising in popu
by lakkal 5y ago
I'm from the US and in my 50s, and read quite a bit, but never encountered the word 'bespoke' until a couple of years ago. Not sure whether it's rising in popularity or what. I see it fairly often now.
- Ancapistani 5y agoIt's been used as long as I remember for high-end custom garments. I've also seen it for a long time related to firearms in the US - but only very specifically when talking about custom, extremely high-end English rifles and shotguns. How high-end? Well, the Wiki page for Boss & Co. cites a quote by King George VI: "A Boss gun, a Boss gun, bloody beautiful, but too bloody expensive!” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_%26_Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_%26_Co. Basically, "bespoke" has been used in the US in reference to goods desired by or consumed by the English gentry class. Recently I've begun seeing it used to describe anything where you'd paying more for ostensibly hand-selected products. The example that comes to mind is "Bespoke Post" (https://www.bespokepost.com/ https://www.bespokepost.com/) - which is, ironically, pretty much the opposite of the historical meaning of the word. It seems like the long-term impact of the "Hipster" culture on the SV world.
- Mountain_Skies 5y agoIt's interesting how quickly a word can gain widespread acceptance. I don't recall seeing "payed" used outside of nautical contexts before a few years ago but now it's rapidly pushing "paid" out of use. It might not be to the 50% point yet but it's certainly spreading in use quickly and might become dominate soon.