Thanks Arkady; I knew you would have insight into it. I just looked it up online and the definition is:
Noun 1. charwoman – a human female employed to do housework; “the char will clean the carpet”; “I have a woman who comes in four hours a day while I write”
My grandmother used to refer to her housekeeper as the “charwoman”. I never knew what it meant, but always cringed when I heard it as I thought it might be (or at least have evolved into) a racist term.
“Biff, in Bed Stuy we hang our sheets and other things out on the line.”
In Canada, we’re all usually three sheets to the wind around this time on a Friday in the summer.
At least it seemed benign enough to an 80 something year-old who had probably been using the term since the first quarter of the 20th century.
I always thought char meant tea, as in char walla.
Thanks Arkady; I knew you would have insight into it. I just looked it up online and the definition is:
Noun 1. charwoman – a human female employed to do housework; “the char will clean the carpet”; “I have a woman who comes in four hours a day while I write”
cleaning lady, cleaning woman, char, woman
cleaner – someone whose occupation is cleaning
Seems benign enough.
“Char” is a class term, updated now to “daily”.
My grandmother used to refer to her housekeeper as the “charwoman”. I never knew what it meant, but always cringed when I heard it as I thought it might be (or at least have evolved into) a racist term.
DIBS, if and when you dump Xing, will you put a “No Xing” sign in front of your stoop?
Uh-oh. “Cleaning svc” – open invitation to another diatribe on socio-economic themes…
m4l, Xing does bring good food from Chinatown but he’s too well dressed to be a takeout guy. And he doesn’t ride a bike.