Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 June 23

= June 23 =

Word for an opening on the door of a speakeasy
For the life of me I can't find a word for the little eye-level trap that you might see on the door of a speakeasy (most likely in the movies), what a doorman might peep through to see who's there. Not a peephole but something with a latch maybe that can be raised and lowered from the inside? Like a mail slot but eye level. Is there a unique word for this? Wolfgangus (talk) 05:09, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Peephole?--Shantavira|feed me 07:25, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Peephole + "not a peephole" ≅ mutual destruction. The Shantavira Method, a great way of getting rid of nuclear waste, is hereby announced.  :)  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  08:21, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Lots of suggestions in these two threads: . -- BenRG (talk) 09:01, 23 June 2014 (UTC)


 * Those threads were immensely helpful, thank you so much. Wolfgangus (talk) 11:10, 23 June 2014 (UTC)


 * In French it's called a vasistas, because the party who opens it might ask was ist das?. —Or so I thought; but my French-English dictionary renders vasistas as ‘transom/fanlight’. —Tamfang (talk) 04:50, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Bellows' French Dictionary (1943 edition) translates vasistas as hopper or fanlight. --70.49.171.225 (talk) 06:04, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
 * What's a hopper? —Tamfang (talk) 04:57, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
 * A Hopper (particulate collection container). Is that really the best title for the article? Tevildo (talk) 14:58, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
 * First used by Chaucer in the Reeve's Tale, incidentally. "By God, right by the hopur wil I stande", Quod John, "and se howgates the corn gas in." Tevildo (talk) 15:05, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
 * was ist das is not French... --Bowlhover (talk) 06:36, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Perhaps French people won't open the door to Germans, but just shout at them through the fanlight? Alansplodge (talk) 12:45, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
 * French people will open the door to Germans, but not if they're holding a bottle of nasty German wine. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:21, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Is that related to why, when a French person is fond of a German person, they ask them to "shut the door"? — Preceding irrelevant response added by 71.20.250.51 (talk) 19:48, 26 June 2014 (UTC)