Do you know what a sham is?

[CostaCosta]

Ds came home from school having learnt this word. I have never heard of a sham (only in the sense of abbreviated "shambles."

Sham 69 were so called because they came from Hersham.

Not sure that is what they were referring to though.

Like others, I’m puzzled that so many don’t know this very ordinary English word, which I’d define as: fake, false, pretend.

Like the joke: Down with shampoo! We demand real poo!

My Victorian granny always referred to pillow shams. I think they went the way of antimacassars in this country.

Why is it that AIBU has such a concentration of non-RTFTers?

I've used this word for years, also thought it was a word in common usage for fake/scam etc.
I've also heard of pillow shams.

Another slang meaning which I don't think has been mentioned yet is a wedgie! We used to have shamming in school which was when someone was given a wedgie. "Sham him!" "Got a good shamming"

I wonder if it's particularly regional?

@CostaCosta

Simply put, a pillow case is there to protect your pillow and keep it clean as you sleep. A pillow sham is there to hide your pillow behind a more decorative facade.

Never heard of it in that context no

I had not heard of pillow shams, so that's been interesting. Thanks OP's DS's friend!

Means fake or a con

@Member984815

Means fake or a con

She knows that already, she mean a "pillow sham"

Regardless of all of this, I absolutely love that a yr 1 immediately went for 'a pillow sham!' as their response to a 'sh' sound for phonics. Lovely

I’ve never heard it as a short form of shambles, just as meaning fake or a pretence. I have heard of pillow shams, not that I’ve ever had any - they sound like a PITA.

It is classic case of there being value in multiple MNetters answering the OP's question directly, so that she gets a sense of how common or otherwise this knowledge is and gains insight into different useages.

Not really. Once one person has pointed out the fact that sham is not short for shambles, we don't need another 40 people saying the same thing.

Why is it that AIBU has such a concentration of non-RTFTers? YADNBU

@cakewench I thought the same. Ship, shell, sham.

I've heard of a pillow sham I think it's a fairly commonly used word in the states (I feel I've picked it up from anthropology!)

I when first moved to the USA I didn't understand what all the pillow shams were!

Just double checked my etymology: 'Shambles' is a very early name for an outdoor butcher stall/market, but more than that, the street used as the slaughter location for the meat being sold in various states of preparation straight from whatever carcass it was. So that's the image of mess and chaos I think. It's not the same as sham. Interesting that 'sham' is not really just fake, but something to hide or conceal.

What about the pillows @Ormally?

A sham is something that has the appearance of something solid and meaningful but is actually the opposite. Have you seriously never heard the term "sham marriage"?!

A shambles just means it's a chaotic mess.

Head explodes

That's very much in keeping with the old time shamble scenes, @MsStillwell! Looked up sham and it does seem to be in the same ballpark as 'shame' with the overtone of modesty/prevention of embarrassment (especially if your pillow is manky I suppose), but if its from Germanic or Danish it's got more in common with the ancestor vocabulary for modern 'scam' which does seem to fit. I would have thought it a good Hebrew root myself, but it's not.

Yes. A con/deliberate fake. In Bath, we have Sham Castle. From the city it looks like a big castle on the hillside, whereas in reality it's just one wall with nothing behind it! As others have said, "sham marriage" is a common phrase.

@lakesidefall

I when first moved to the USA I didn't understand what all the pillow shams were!

For ages I was convinced they were the skirts that go around the bottom of the bed.

I also struggled with the difference between a duvet and comforter, the difference between a UK king and a US king... bedding has just been a world of confusion for my tiny brain

RuffleCrow

Good grief 😬 Op knows what it means! We all know what it means! Op explains it on page 1 and we're now on page 5 of people saying the same thing, which isn't actually relevent to what OP was talking about.

@AliTheMinx when you posted, what did you imagine the previous 122 posts to have been about?