www.alphadictionary.com

I was reading a nice little murder mystery when the author said someone had slipped a piece of paper into the jalousie and I thought, "Boy, that'd be a great 'What's the Good Word?'"

For me it's one of those words you just always grew up knowing (my grandmother's back room had jalousied windows, as did all the houses you ever visited on Galveston,) but I have no idea where to begin teasing out it's origin in my mind.

Welcome to the Agora, MissyVW. May we hear more from you, and on a regular basis.

I took a quick look and found that jalousie blinds are related to the word jealousy. I'm not sure just how the tie-in works, but it's because jalousies afforded a view while hiding the viewer. How jealousy comes into this picture I'm not sure. Perhaps someone else will dig deeper and enlighten us.

Very interesting, Slava. You see, the jalousied windows I am familiar with hide nothing since they are made of glass.

Think of glass venetian blinds that are affixed to stationary sashes and you'll get the drift -- as well as the draft (they are good at letting breezes in during the summer, but not so good at keeping Old Man Winter *out.*)

But thanks for the start!

At first I thought, "glass venetian blinds?" Then I remembered that I'd seen such things before. They usually operate on a crank system, not the strings of venetian blinds, to my recollection. I don't think I would have ever thought of calling them venetian or jalousies, though. I wonder if there is another term for these kinds of windows.

You're absolutely right, they do operate on a crank -- they are fixed in plane by metal clips on the ends of each pane -- but I didn't know how boring a description you could stand (LOL). I'm actually in construction and have never heard another term for this type of window so I would be quite interested to hear if others are more knowledgeable than I am.

BTW: my family always called them "jalousied" windows, as in, the way they were all put together gave them the name, and always in past tense (for what it's worth.) I don't ever recall hearing of only one jalousie. Perhaps that's just one "slat" of glass?

I'd go for the singular as being a shortening of something along the lines of "a set of blinds in the jalousie style."

From what I've looked at so far, the glass jalousies are so named because they are in the same style as the blinds, that is to say louvered.

Which leads to the idea of jalousied as you mentioned. I don't think this is a past tense, but a passive voice. The glass has been sliced to form a jalousie, thus it is a jalousied window.

Hunh?
I'm not pickin' up what you're puttin' down.

Glass isn't sliced like a thin sheet chipped or sawed off a fat chunk. A line is scored on the surface of a large sheet that's all one thickness, and then the desired piece is broken off along the score.

But I'm also not conversant about passive voice. When you used "sliced," in your description as past tense, well, that made sense to use it as an equivalent (even if the precise description didn't fit,) but I think of a jalousied window as the entire construction -- past tense as when the entire contraption was built. Something like, "They used jalousied windows for more ventilation, instead of sashed windows." But maybe that's just colloquial and not at all standard.

In addition to those thoughts, are you saying that one piece of glass is a jalousie?

Boy, it's easy to get lost isn't it?

Welcome Missy.
Hope you stay, hope your welcome is sincere as well.

Hunh?
I'm not pickin' up what you're puttin' down.

Glass isn't sliced like a thin sheet chipped or sawed off a fat chunk. A line is scored on the surface of a large sheet that's all one thickness, and then the desired piece is broken off along the score.

But I'm also not conversant about passive voice. When you used "sliced," in your description as past tense, well, that made sense to use it as an equivalent (even if the precise description didn't fit,) but I think of a jalousied window as the entire construction -- past tense as when the entire contraption was built. Something like, "They used jalousied windows for more ventilation, instead of sashed windows." But maybe that's just colloquial and not at all standard.

In addition to those thoughts, are you saying that one piece of glass is a jalousie?

Boy, it's easy to get lost isn't it?

I guess I should have put sliced in quotation marks for clarity. I doubt, anyway, that the glass is even cut. It is made in the individual pieces.

What I was trying to say is that the application of the term jalousie to a glass window is just because it's in the form of a jalousie blind.

The passive voice is when something receives the action of the verb. Active: They plowed the roads last night. Passive: The roads were plowed last night.

That's why I was thinking the a glass window, made into a jalousie, has actually been "jalousied."

Does that help make my mud clearer?

That DOES clear it up:
The road was plowed. = The windows were jalousied.

Hmmmm. Wait.
In that construction, doesn't that still make jalousied a past tense verb -- like plowed? I think of jalousied as and adjective: Those are jalousied windows. Does the voice affect the tense?

If I'm particularly dense, please don't hesitate to let me know it's tiresome. I'm sure this falls under the heading of Things You Should Have Learned In School Had You Been Paying Attention, but it's pretty clear I was sleeping through lots of these classes.

P.S. to Luke: Thanks for the welcome. That was nice.

That DOES clear it up:
The road was plowed. = The windows were jalousied.

Hmmmm. Wait.
In that construction, doesn't that still make jalousied a past tense verb -- like plowed? I think of jalousied as and adjective: Those are jalousied windows. Does the voice affect the tense?

If I'm particularly dense, please don't hesitate to let me know it's tiresome. I'm sure this falls under the heading of Things You Should Have Learned In School Had You Been Paying Attention, but it's pretty clear I was sleeping through lots of these classes.

P.S. to Luke: Thanks for the welcome. That was nice.

The confusion comes from the fact that the passive uses the past tense form to form itself. So the real key is the verb "to be." We could also look at "jalousied" as an adjective, as in "The plowed road." As far as I understand, though, it's still formed from the passive voice, with a similarity to the past tense.

Then again, we are talking about the conceptual verb form of what is actually a noun. There are lots of purists out there who would argue against the idea.

Ah so! So even if you're speaking about the future, the passive voice still naturally uses the past tense form: the road is to be plowed?

Ah so! So even if you're speaking about the future, the passive voice still naturally uses the past tense form: the road is to be plowed?

Ah so, Grasshopper, you have hit the nail on the head.

Assignments must be turned in on time.
Buildings must be built to specifications.
Jalousies and jalousie windows must be made to fit the frame.