"Hand" is what I've always said... but I'm a fifty-something American
Mid-Westerner. (Is your co-editor English?) OTOH, just a few years
ago I took a class on Care & Storage of Museum Textiles (approximate
title) and we all used the word "hand" when speaking of textile
analysis, as you have in the first example. The second example would
read well enough but I would probably spend a few seconds wondering
why the author didn't say "hand".
Just my opinion, of course!
Suzanne
Subject: [h-cost] Translation help
I need reactions from a sampling of avid readers of textile
literature,
and where better to find it than here?
I'm editing a paper on textile analysis written by someone whose
native
language is not English. Some of the terms and idioms have come
through a
bit odd, and part of my job is to smooth it out so as not to jar the
reader.
The author is listing characteristics of fabric, including its
appearance,
handle, and properties. Obviously "handle" is the word that doesn't
ring
true here. My co-editor pencilled in "feel." The fabric-user in me
thinks
"hand", but perhaps that is not so well-understood a term.
If you read either of these phrases in an article, would it pull
you up
short, or would it make sense to you?
"...the properties, hand, and appearance of a finished fabric."
"...the properties, feel, and appearance of a finished fabric."
Other suggestions welcome. I don't think "texture" will work in
context,
because that turns out to be one of many factors in the "handle."
--Robin
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