sanitary thing

[Quang Hai]

Hello Teachers,
I am reading an W Trevor's story - A bit of business.
'Once, in a house at night, a young girl had walked across a landing with nothing on her except a sanitary thing. He and Gallagher had been in the shadows, alerted by the flush of a lavatory. She hadn’t seen them.'
From the underlined words, I would guess that it is sanitary napkin. However, it is quite strange to wear only sanitary napkin. I would like to ask if sanitary thing has any meaning like underwear or short underpants?Thanks for your help.

 

[SoothingDave]

I would also think it meant a sanitary napkin. It doesn't make sense to me either.

 

[emsr2d2]

The use of "with nothing on her" is rather odd too. If she was naked, it would be "with nothing on". "On her" to me means "carrying". She was carrying nothing but a sanitary towel/tampon. I don't know of anyone who refers to sanitary wear as a "sanitary thing" though.

It sounds like a very strange story to me, and not very well written.

 

[Rover_KE]

It would have been something like this.

Rover

 

[bhaisahab]

The use of "with nothing on her" is rather odd too. If she was naked, it would be "with nothing on". "On her" to me means "carrying". She was carrying nothing but a sanitary towel/tampon. I don't know of anyone who refers to sanitary wear as a "sanitary thing" though.

It sounds like a very strange story to me, and not very well written.

William Trevor is one of the most repected Irish writers, particularly as a short story writer. His writing is very "Irish", I like it.

 

[SoothingDave]

Using "thing" instead of a proper term shows laziness as a writer. Unless he was writing in character and the character is supposed to be devoid of vocabulary.

 

[5jj]

Using "thing" instead of a proper term shows laziness as a writer.

That's a bit judgemental when we have only three sentences to go on.

Unless he was writing in character and the character is supposed to be devoid of vocabulary.

Well, there are quite a few males who would not know what to call that. This does not mean that they are 'devoid of vocabulary'.

 

[bhaisahab]

You can read about William Trevor here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Trevor It might help you to understand. He writes about a certain type of Irish person of a certain time.

 

[SoothingDave]

I allowed that he may be writing in character.