| 释义 |
hammer-cloth
[Derivation unknown.
The conjecture in quot. 1854 is obviously untenable: the coachman's ‘box’ is not known before 1600. De Quincey, Autobiog. Germ. Stud., 1836, (Wks. 1889 II. 83) has a conjecture that hammer-cloth is ‘a corruption from hamper-cloth.’ Prof. Skeat has compared Du. hemel ‘heaven, canopy, tester’, citing from Hexham den Hemel van de koetse ‘the Seeling of a Coach.’ But these suggestions are not corroborated by the evidence. See also hammock-cloth, with which this is either connected or confused.]
A cloth covering the driver's seat or ‘box’ in a state or family coach. (In quot. 1465 applied to a material.)
1465Mann. & Househ. Exp. 315 My mastyr bout of Baron of Hadlegthe xlj. elles of hamerclothe. 155.in Archæol. XVI. 91 (D.) Hamer clothes, with our arms and badges of our colours, and all other things apperteininge unto the same wagon. 1736West Let. in Gray's Poems (1775) 10, I never knew before that the golden fangs on hammercloths were so old a fashion. 1794W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 153 Hammer Cloths are among the principal ornaments of a Carriage. 1854Knight Once upon a Time II. 18 The [coach] man carried a hammer, pincers, nails, ropes, and other appliances in case of need; and the hammer-cloth was devised to conceal these..remedies for broken wheels and shivered panels.
Hence hammer-clothed |-klɒθt, -ɔː-| a., provided with a hammer-cloth.
1862Sala Accepted Addr. 182 The great..heavy hammer-clothed, double-seated family Carriage. |