You say purse, I say handbag...

You know I live in the US and I get confused too. Purse, handbag, pocketbook.... It seems different people apply different meanings.

For some odd reason I think of a pockets book as having a snap lock and a short handle, a handbag as having a shoulder strap and a purse as more of a clutch. I can give you no good reason for this:clueless:

Melody
 
Interesting discussion! Some of this might be regional even within the U.S. When I was younger, people my parents' and grandparents' ages would call them pocketbooks. When I was growing up, we called them purses. "Handbag" was rarely a term I heard, but I was, of course, familiar with it, though never used it. When I started selling vintage, I was thrown by the term "bag." I'd never heard that used in conjunction with a purse!

Like Jonathan, though, now I generically think of them all as purses, then a handbag is a bag with handles you can only carry with your hand or over your wrist, but not over your shoulder. Funny, but I tend to think of handbags as more of a smaller type, unstructured "bag," but a larger, more structured one as a pocketbook. Not sure where these connotations have come from! Probably because I associate large "day" purses with handles as being what older folks carried in the 50s & 60s, and called pocketbooks--like those big old tapestry ones with the feet on the bottom. Also because book connotes something hard sided, and bag, something soft sided. Then you have clutches--which I think of both as bags and purses.

When listing I always try to use both "purse" and "handbag" or "hand bag" in the titles, for all versions of them. Because you just don't know what someone else is going to call it! And a change purse is always to me a change purse or coin purse, never just a "purse."

Here's what I think of as a pocketbook; it's large (10" H x 12" W) and has structured sides:
Mel-Tonw_handsmall.jpg


A handbag, smaller and with soft sides:
W_Dframepursesmall.jpg


A purse; this has a short-ish shoulder strap:
brownbeadpursehangingsmall.jpg





we have the Italian zucchinis instead of the French courgettes.
Click to expand...

Nicole, what do you call the eggplant? An eggplant or an aubergine?
 
This is all so interesting! Thanks for all the input everyone. It seems to be soup of connotations for the various terms, in different parts of the world and different generations.

For me, handbag is the generic term: I'd still call an evening clutch a handbag, and even a shoulder strap bag. I might call any of them just a bag, but handbag doesn't rule anything out, except perhaps a very large 'tote' bag.

Originally posted by themerchantsofvintage
My mom always called the little snap ones a change purse and the ones for change, bills and checkbooks a wallet.
Click to expand...

That's interesting too, because to me wallet is implicitly masculine. I'm actually using a man's wallet for my money right now, but I still call it my purse.

For any word geeks out there, (like me!) I looked up the origin of the word purse. It apparently originally meant a small leather bag, for instance for money, and came (though various incarnations and influences) from the Greek word byrsa which meant leather or hide. The word Bursar (treasurer), and bursary, and purser (on a ship) all come from the same source.

According to the Online Etymology dictionary, purse meaning "woman's handbag" is attested from 1955.

Pocketbook originally literally meant a small book you carried in your pocket. The meaning “a booklike leather folder for papers, bills, etc.” is from 1722. Meaning "a woman's purse" is from 1816.


Ruth
 
Anne, Australians call them eggplant but when I was living in the UK I picked up aubergine and it's such a lovely word....one of my favourites....I've stuck with it. Both are quite common in Australia so there's no confusion - unlike cantelope (UK), which are rockmelons here, and satsuma, which are what the Brits call mandarins but we here in Australia call plums. So many different names for the same thing!

Nicole
 
Originally posted by TheVintagePeddler
Interesting. I can't answer for everyone but I do know what a handbag is. I am familiar with that term but do not use it in my everyday life. My Italian aunt from NY calls her purse a pocketbook. I have no idea where that term comes from but I do hear people use it.
Mostly people around here will call a purse a purse or also sometimes just a bag as in 'hand me my bag' or 'I forgot my bag'. Bigger bags like the ones you take to school with two shoulder straps I call a backpack or knapsack or bookbag. Curious what others say...
Click to expand...

Ha! I use pocketbook - must be a New York/old timey thing? Or more like Chris says - "pockabook". I also say bag generically. To me a tote is a simple square sack with handles, like grocery totes. And I call a schoolbag a bookbag.

When selling I usually will use both terms - handbag and purse. In etsy I will use handbag, purse and bag as tags. Although I use pocketbook, I never actually use it while selling. It's like I subconsciencely knew it was "wrong". lol

Fascinating thread - I love the difference in regional speak.
 
I use pocketbook - must be a New York/old timey thing?
Click to expand...

Must be.... My mom, aunts, and grandmother are the folks I think of when I think of the older generation that said pocketbook, and we all lived in NYS, and my dad's family came from NYC after they immigrated from Italy. And it was Marie, I think, who said her Italian aunt (?) called them pocketbooks. So, maybe an Italian/NY thing?
 
Originally posted by vintagebaubles
I use pocketbook - must be a New York/old timey thing?
Click to expand...

Must be.... My mom, aunts, and grandmother are the folks I think of when I think of the older generation that said pocketbook, and we all lived in NYS, and my dad's family came from NYC after they immigrated from Italy. And it was Marie, I think, who said her Italian aunt (?) called them pocketbooks. So, maybe an Italian/NY thing?
Click to expand...

It's an old school thing for sure. Where I live in Brooklyn, there are a lot of people who stay in the neighborhood for generations and so there are 15 year old girls who use that word. It's kinda comforting that small things don't change like that...
 
I've been reading this with interest - and laughing out loud sometimes (fannypack? bumbag? gee, we don't have any funny expressions for this in German!). I admit, I simply get confused with British/American/Australian expressions... At school and the language courses I've done, I've always had British teachers, but read American books heavily at that time... So that was already a good ground for confusion. And now at work I correspond (via e-mail) with Aussies and Kiwis mostly. I guess I tend to get things mixed up and just hope I don't make too many grave errors :eureka: .

But it's the same in German. My best friend is Viennese - so neither of us speaks "perfect" German originally. Sometimes I realise I use a word that that's Swiss-German but not "real" German - and I don't know the "correct" word - and my friend has yet another expression for it but doesn't know the "correct" one either...

I came across the term "pocketbook" only this spring, when I was in Philadelphia, and I admit I didn't get it at all at first :embaressed:. I don't know though where that seller that used the term was from...

Karin
 
Yes, a New York thing. But not Italian. We all carried "pockabooks," (although we knew it was "pocketbook," regardless of ethnicity, religion, etc. We also say "bag" (as in "I left my bag in the taxi!").

p.s. the term pocketbook originated in the 17th century, to describe a small case women carried to hold a little notebook along with other necessities. it slipped into the wearer's pocket which, at the time, was a separate garment fixed around the waist with narrow ties. I think it was quite a while before garments had integrated pockets. But I have recently taken a lot of Benadryl and Sudafed...

I think it originally described the notebook itself, but came, through synecdoche (great word!) to describe the case.
 
fuzzylizzie said:
Here in the South, I grew up with the word pocketbook, but also heard purse and handbag and bag as synonyms. We use the term "change purse" to refer to a little snap purse.

Interestingly, my father always referred to his billfold as his pocketbook. Which makes sense if you think about it...
Click to expand...
I'm in Virginia and I still say billfold and always thought of a "purse" as a small little thing to carry coins...like change or coin purse. Pocketbook is more what I grew up hearing. We would say evening bag for the little pretty beaded bags carried for more dressy affairs.
 
Jonathan said:
I am inclined to refer to purses as the generic term for all types and then break them down into shoulder bags - long handles for slipping over your shoulder, handbags - small handles for looping over your wrist, and clutches - no extruding handle, for holding in your hand. Pocketbook is a very American term, its never used in Canada except by an American.
Click to expand...

I am from the UK but still use the word 'fanny pack'! My mother used to use it as a joke and now I have just got used to it and use it without thinking! :oops:
 
Yes, I remember this discussion! Geek that I am, I am fascinated by languages and their similarities and differences - and continue to be confused about British/American/Aussie terms for the same thing. And I have gotten used to occasionally being confronted by a confused face and realise I have probably used the wrong word :BAGUSE:.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top