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Is it unreasonable to use such words nowadays or is it now outdated?

I know of it by clothes horse, maiden and airer.

I know both. I'd tend to use airer instead because it makes more sense to anyone, rather than any sort of regional preference.

purpleme12

Why didn't you put clothes in front of the words?
I only knew what you were talking about because of the reply after

^ this - and are you (and your son) so flaky that you have to ask a question like this on here? hmm (MN can we PLEASE have an eye-rolling emoji?)

Maninly because it's a maiden, not a clothes maiden. Why would anyone who uses the word add anything to it?

Nothing flaky about it. It's a bloody word for a real thing, a maiden.

As a kid, NW, it was a maiden. Later as we moved South and a bit East it became a clothes horse and nowadays, because regional words seem to be deemed slightly hilarious, its a clothes airer, if I remember!

Why can't we just enjoy the differences instead of passing judgement?

Because it's very regional or by that I mean a lot of people would never have heard of that word by itself to mean that.
So would have no clue

I thought you meant maiden as in virgin 😂

It’s a clothes horse or airer here! Never heard it called maiden in any part of the U.K.

@purpleme12

Because it's very regional or by that I mean a lot of people would never have heard of that word by itself to mean that. So would have no clue

That's missing the point, if you've never heard another word for something you don't know that you'r using a regional word so why would you say a meaningless word or phrase?

@purpleme12

Because it's very regional or by that I mean a lot of people would never have heard of that word by itself to mean that. So would have no clue

So?

I am pretty sure we all use terms that others have never heard or used. I wouldn't think it OK to tell someone to explain themselves, that they are being flaky by not doing so!

Don't be so self centred... (literally!)

Heard of all three terms, though don't think I've heard anyone use just 'horse".

Saying that as a student if I'd heard someone announcing they were "after a maidan" I'd have probably thought they were doing that thing many new students do, where they try to sound as obscure as possible.

Well, truthfully it's not just students. Work with someone who frequently does it "Good morrow" and all that sort of thing.

'I am after' to mean 'I am seeking' is a bit colloquial but widely understood. But, you then come across the Irish usage, which I think (after much misunderstanding) means 'I have just done this thing, so I am now 'after' it'.

It is funny when you use a term you consider completely normal and only discover it's a regional peculiarity from others' reactions. All part of the learning experience!

e.g. 'I was after having my lunch' to mean 'I'd had my lunch', rather than 'I wanted lunch'.

Now that's a new usage to me. Very interesting. Where I am using 'after' is quite normal. I'm after a large freerange turkey for Christmas would be quite a normal phrase and suggest I haven't found one yet.

@lottiegarbanzo if I heard someone say "I was after having my lunch" if think they meant "I wanted to have my lunch". I wouldn't say that particular phrase, I dint think, but I probably would say, for example, "I was after a large box to keep toys in"

I used to say maiden, as I'm from the NW. Now I say airer or clothes horse as I've realised maiden is a very regional term!

@Northernlassie27 my DH is from the SE and he says "what are you after?" when our kids are pestering him, so I don't think that's specifically a NW thing

I knew exactly what you were talking about by your title OP; I had the same conversation with housemates nearly 50 years ago! I call them maidens.

I know it as a clothes maid.

@CuriousaboutSamphire yes my 2 comments on this thread show how self centred I am. Dear me

Yes @purpleme12 they do. That's why I said literally

You have never heard the term so others should make special effort with their own lexicon to accommodate you... that is centering yourself!

Ok. I'm really not going to argue about this

Yes, I would too bringbackCabanas It took me quite a while and someone explaining it on here, to realise that that's not what the common Irish phrase 'I was after' means. But again, it's one of those phrases so commonly used, without any thought, both ways round, that the speaker would never think they needed to clarify.

It's still called the maiden in the North because the first washing machine was called the Yorkshire Maiden (1750s) and invented there. All washing related devices became maidens until now in the end only the last part remains.

Yorkshire Maiden for washing linen, 1752

@jojomolo That's about how I remember it too. I've a couple of dialect poem/song books from the late 18th C and some of the household songs, wash day blues, refer to the Yorkshire Maiden!

I genuinely thought he was looking for a girl/girlfriend from your OP.

Lancashire here and it was always a maiden.

@sophandbridge I've never heard it used like that. We've always called a floor standing clothes airer a clothes dolly and a ceiling hanging one a pulley.