www.incontinentsupport.org

Hi,

here are some questions that I've never been able to figure out indirectly, so I thought I'd just ask them.
I was reminded of them because of the link to the ChangingtimesDiaperCo. website in the other topic: looking at the plastic pants they offered I noticed the "InControl Taffeta Pants".
I've always wondered what "Taffeta" means? I know that the word originally refers to some expensive kind of silk, but the idea of fashioning diaper covers from expensive silk seems rather far-fetched

-> Does anyone know what those pants are made from, and why it is called "Taffeta"?

I also think I have seen the word used in connection to a certain kind of surface texture consisting of little embossed diamond shapes or squares - but I'm not sure.
The thing is that whenever I am trying to select a plastic pant to buy I always want it to be made from foil having that kind of texture. I'm not sure what it is, but I feel that plastic without that texture is - I don't know, but it's somewhat awkward, especially if it is very shiny and transparent - as if it is a wholly different and unpleasantly clinical material. But plastic with such an embossed texture feels fine and pleasantly familiar.
I've always put this down as that this embossed plastic is less 'obviously plastic' and less strikingly different from regular fabric. But maybe I'm being a bit of a 'princess on the pea' ?

-> It seems that other people don't bother with it, of even don't notice it, because it is hardly ever specified in online shops selling plastic pants. Is that right?

And lastly: I've always wondered what the proper English word is for some sounds that plastic pants produce. It bugs me that I cannot seem to find the right word for that. I often read words like crinkle but that's not what I mean .. it may be that a disposable diaper crinkles, or maybe a plastic pant that has become terminally stiff (though that would maybe better be called crackling?).
What I mean is the sounds you get by handling soft and supple plastic. One part of that is caused by the folding and unfolding of creases in the foil ... if I had to coin a word for it, it might be something like to plurple (blurble, blorble or maybe larble?). The other sound is only produced by the above-mentioned embossed textured foil and it sounds most pronounced when you quickly run your fingernails over it. To my ears at least it would be written out in a comic book as WHEEEEEOWW!!! , and if I should make up a word for producing that particular sound, it would be to wheeow.

-> kidding aside: are there any extant English words that describe these sounds? I've thought of rustling or wheezing but the first one suggests a stiffer material than I have in mind, and the second one just reminds me of a heavy smoker after running up several stairs - and no, there's no Dutch words for these sounds either.

Rustling or crinkling are probably the closest, but I'm not sure there are any explicate word for those sounds. Wheezing is definitely not correct.

I think that taffeta is the weave originally used for silk; when this weave is used for nylon or another textile, it is still called taffeta. I have no reliable advice on the sounds protection makes, because my hearing is defective. My guess is a good onesie or another fabric pant over the plastic pant should control the noise.

Wheezing tends to apply to those with breathing difficulty and the sounds they make....as with asthma, emphysema and other lung ailments. At least in American English. As might be
compared to a gasp for air or whistle sound made by not well people or elderly who are weak and have difficulty getting enough air in or out of their lungs.

But with your weeeooooooooowwwwww sounds, I can't help but think of this song from the 80's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzeOWnnSNjg


wayyyyyyohhhhhhhhhhhwayyyyyyyyyyoh......Walk Like an Egyptian! The BANGLES knew that sound!


There's my humor for the day.

John 1050.

now i have that song stuck in my head. THANKS JOHN!

Lol

Actually, I remembered the other day that I know a classic French movie (Mon Oncle) where someone wears an enormous nylon duster or housecoat that makes exactly that same sound when she moves about.
I'll try and find that clip - maybe it will also expel the bangles from your mind

The movie is on Youtube but with a very annoying Russian voice-over. For the sound it doesn't matter though.

It's here, it's the fist scene where the lady fusses over her husband who's leaving for work, starting around 3:40
It's a great movie by the way, but I wouldn't watch it overdubbed in Russian like that

Creaking and squeaking are the best I can come up with.

'Creaking' is the word we use to describe the sounds made by old, wooden floorboards, which is dynamically similar to the sound of thick plastic bending and stretching.

I'm pretty sure you know what 'squeaking' is and used next to 'creaking,' I think gives a relatively good verbal description of these sounds ☺