costume

[Panache]

His wife then responded, "So, you only wear the costume, then?"

The correct answer

"Absolutely Ma'am every Halloween, but on Sundays I like to dress in my very best and wear Highland attire"

Cheers

Jamie

[Kiltman]

Sometimes it's not worth the effort to respond. My experience is comments like hers have little behind them and not worth the time to respond.

[wyldathart]

That's why I often use the question, "How do you mean?" (or some variation) when I feel that I might go off half-cocked on something someone says to me. It gives me the chance to listen a second time to be sure I understood what the speaker was saying, and to re-evaluate my gut reaction to the first thing.

Regards,
Rex.

I try to do so as often as possible. Sometimes folks just say something that they meant one way and it came off another. I'm guilty of that alot .

[Larry124]

Walking away was the right thing.
A gentleman’s response to a lady in a situation like that, even if she was out of line, has a very low probability of any kind of success.

[Chas]

My grand-mother would use the word costume instead of dress or attire. She only died 10 years ago, but she plagued us on her death bed to have her buried in 'her black costume' as she wanted to 'meet the Lord wearing my best'. Even to this day people in the UK talk about swimming 'cossies' or just my 'cossy'.
I have noticed before that people want to say something, but don't know the correct terminology so they say what they think is the closest. More often than not it doesn't work and they end up looking foolish. Ignoring the mistake is probably the best bet.

Regards

Chas

[thescot]

I was on a plane about two weeks ago, and while perusing the St. Paddy's Day photos, the flight attendant saw one of me kilted. She mentioned how very nice I looked in my constume.

I told her matter of factly that it wasn't a costume it was highland attire, Scottish national dress. Well, she was all flustered and began apologizing and telling me that she didn't mean anything and that she called her uniform a costume.

So I told her, "It's OK. It's just nice to be complemented by a pretty girl at my age." (She was about my age and not that pretty, but then neither am I pretty.) So, she felt less embarrassed and I hope her day was better after that.

I corrected her thinking, made my point, and perhaps made her feel good all at the same time.

[Cynthia]

I don't know what this woman's meaning may have been, but please remember to many people "costume" means garments/garb/uniform/etc. As a few people have said, it was common to refer to certain outfits as a specific type of costume.

[McFarkus]

"Costume" has a negative connotation here on Xmarks. It is apparent from the comments that that is not necessarily true elsewhere, and that "costume" does not necessarily mean the same thing in all places. I think we need to err on the side of tolerance.

[wvpiper]

but the otherwise use of current language leads me to believe she was merely ignornant of the reality.

or, since they associate the dress with bagpipes, it is in a sense a costume, and that is there reality.
Maybe if you had taken the time to discuss it a little more, you could have determined what she meant, or at the least helped her understand your reality.

[bchunter]

I suppose my problem is that I agree with all of you. If used in a flipant way the designation of "costume" may be meant as just that. The flip side is that some older generations or people from different regions may use the term more in it's true and former manner. It really is situation specific.