the.com/clothespin
a tiny wooden gymnast that grips your laundry and refuses to let go through any storm
means A small clip, usually of wood or plastic, used to fasten wet laundry to a line so it can dry.
from A plain compound of "clothes" (from Old English clāth, cloth) and "pin" (Old English pinn, a peg or fastener), joined sometime in the 19th century when wash hung on lines outdoors. The word literally describes the thing: a pin for clothes. The familiar spring-hinged version that grips like a jaw was a later refinement of the simpler one-piece wooden peg that was just slotted over the line.
- patent boom
- Over 140 clothespin patents filed by 1887 alone
- spring debut
- Coil-spring design patented in 1853 by David Smith
- public art
- A 45-foot steel clothespin towers in Philadelphia
- shaker roots
- One-piece wooden versions made by Shaker communities
- nose duty
- Doubles as the universal symbol for terrible smells