Isn’t tumble dryer an excellent word?
It’s not just a dryer, nor is it simply a tumbler. It’s a tumblin’ dryer, a dryer that dries through the process of tumbling things (usually clothes, but sometimes coins that you’ve left in a pocket) making it sound like the most fun you could have drying something.
It came to my attention recently when I noticed that someone had called one a ‘clothes dryer’.
Ugh, that sounds awful. Just something that dries clothes, so boring, where does the tumbling come in? That’s what I want to know. Surely it does still tumble the clothes, the tumbling is a key part of the drying process. Without the tumbling you’re just putting your clothes in an increasingly warm cylinder, which would never catch on.
It’s one of those words that you use so often you forget that it’s also ridiculous and brilliant. Interestingly you don’t get the same with the precursor to the tumble dryer, the washing machine. ‘Washing machine’ is just a very efficient way of explaining what that particular piece of equipment does. To make it more exciting it should be called ‘the spinnin’ sudster’ or ‘the whirly clean’. Yes, ‘whirly clean’ is much better.
Having said that, ‘the washing machine’ is a brilliant nickname if you are the best at washing and cleaning things. You can easily imagine someone saying “Check that guy out. He’s a washing machine!“.
Incidentally, I would like everyone to know me by that name from now on. Thankyou.
