Curtains

On Facebook on 5/28, Bert Vaux reported on responses to a query of his on curtains vs. drapes. On that posting, an incidental comment by Heidi Harley: Did anyone [among BV’s respondents] mention that you can’t threaten anyone with the utterance, It’s drapes for you! But you can with curtains! Eliciting a series of responses from me: — 1 As you surely know, this is not some totally idiosyncractic fact, but follows from some other (admittedly, idiosyncratic) facts: the vertical fabric barrier between stage and arena in a theatrical context is called a curtain, period (such a thing in a domestic context might easily be called drapes, but in a theatre — even though the fabric is heavy, opaque, and floor-length — it’s a curtain). Then, since a theatrical display closes with the curtain falling, or its two parts being drawn together, curtains came to mean ‘the end’. Once you’re given the rest, it makes sense, but then the rest is pretty much arbitrary. — 2 Other things you wouldn’t…