Are maidens or horses unreasonable words?

[Northernlassie27]

My son has moved to uni from the NW to the NE. He told his housemates he's after a maiden as he doesn't have one. They were perplexed then once he had explained told him he should be looking for a horse instead.
Is it unreasonable to use such words nowadays or is it now outdated?

Wtf? I thought he was into medieval reenactment and his mates were of the “if she stays still long enough, I’m on board” type!!

Why on earth didn’t you say “clothes” first?

And it’s an airer.

@user1487194234

Winter dyke

Yip. In scotchland its winter dykes. I don’t know it’s official origin but I’m thinking a dyke is a wall and it’s winter so the winter dykes (clothes horse) is an indoor clothes drying wall!?

I honestly thought you were referring to unpaid skivvies or slaves.
Norf Laaahndon.

The item referred to is one of the most regionally-varied things there is, in terms of naming. Perhaps suggest that he discusses his childhood love of playing tiggy / tag / dob / whatever else that one's called, next.

I thought at first that you meant he was seeking to woo a fair maiden, romantically. His housemates were advising either a OTS or that he take up gambling instead.

So no terms are unreasonable but being surprised and unprepared for the fact that people from other parts of the country, or backgrounds, use different terms to you, certainly is.

Not unreasonable - it’s a regional thing.

DH (from the NW) called it a maiden until I made him stop because it was weird. I'm Scottish and have never heard the phrase "winter dyke" in my life! Is that a central belt thing? We (Highlands) always called it the clothes horse, and I usually call it the rack or, if it's my fancy Lakeland heated one, the airer.

I thought a maiden was one with pulleys that you pull up to near the ceiling?

Clothes horse sounds like one of the old fashioned wooden contraptions that my Gran had that stood in front of the gas fire to dry/air the clothes.

Clothes airer is what I call them.

Winter dyke? OMG!

That sounds like in winter, Susan Calman appears in your house, ready to hang out your laundry. Whereas in summer she's busy twirling around the garden, (or exploring islands or summat). That or your hang your laundry in a ditch.

As I was saying, it's quite unreasonable to be surprised by others' quirky, regional turns of phrase!

Surely you just use the more commonly known words when talking in groups with people from different regions. So if you want to call it a clothes horse or clothes maiden colloquially go ahead but I've just looked on Argos and neither of those terms were there, but when I typed 'clothes' then 'airer' appeared as an option.

There was a heated debate a while ago on here when someone starting a thread saying they were getting their baby's 'needles' instead of just saying injections. Then loads of posters piling on to say they were jabs or jags where they live, if they'd just said vaccinations in the first place there would be no confusion and people could have answered the actual question which got very lost in all that.

It's like if you're speaking you can use mates/pals/chums etc. But if speaking to someone who is learning English you use 'friend' as the widely recognised word.

'Ah well my winter dyke is Susan but in summer we favour Sandi, in the garden'.

Maiden here too - NW

Never heard of maiden in this context.

But I have a clothes horse. I wouldn't call it an airer.

Yorkshire

I'm in Scotland and never heard of "winter dyke". Clothes horse for me. DH is from NW and says maiden

Maiden here too (NW). I think clothes horse and winter dyke sound weirder.

SW here and know both words but commonly called clothes horse or airer here

So if you want to call it a clothes horse or clothes maiden colloquially go ahead but I've just looked on Argos and neither of those terms were there, but when I typed 'clothes' then 'airer' appeared as an option.

They clearly know what they are though 🤷‍♀️

I call it a maiden and I’m in the SE, but my parents are from the NW so that’s probably why! People here seem to just call them an airer.

It's a Maid here (NW) Mum used to call it a clothes horse.
Never heard it called a Maiden.

Winter dike (?) here too on the west coast of Scotland...but then dike is a wooden fence here so it makes perfect sense.

Horse here (mids)

@LadyTiredWinterBottom2

I thought he meant gf. When they said horse l thought crikey just someone to ride, bit cold hearted

I thought exactly the same.

Tbh now I know I do think maiden is a bit outdated.

I call it an airer now because it seems universally understood, but it was a winter hedge when I was growing up.

Sorry but is your son looking for a virgin? Or are you purposely obtuse! Does it make you feel superior or your son?

Maiden

@IhateBoswell

So if you want to call it a clothes horse or clothes maiden colloquially go ahead but I've just looked on Argos and neither of those terms were there, but when I typed 'clothes' then 'airer' appeared as an option.

They clearly know what they are though 🤷‍♀️

@lhateBoswell I was typing 'clothes maiden' and it was coming up blank for 'suggestions'. I didn't know it was literally just 'maiden' as the first reply on the thread said put 'clothes' in front of it, have tried again with just 'maiden' in going to be getting pop up ads all week now. My point is anywhere in the country if you said clothes airer I think people would know what you were referring to. My granny called it a clothes horse but I've never heard anyone just say 'horse'. We host a lot of foreign students (well did before coronavirus) and have always been asked to use standard English terms with them, but if any of them had asked me what a maiden was I'd wonder what they'd been reading, would never occur to me that they meant something for drying clothes.