Draw draperies back

Question

I had switched off lamps and drawn draperis back from the sliding glass doors.
(P.Cornwell)
I'm every time confused with this usage of 'back' like in this sentence.
Which way does 'back' mean, open or close?
[nq:1]From the context it's clear that she had opened the draperies.[/nq]
But how does draw back mean: open?
In my image, 'draw curtains back' could mean close them, too.

It may be because I don't have a firm insight into usage of 'back'.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I had switched off lamps and drawn draperis back from the sliding glass doors. (P.Cornwell) I'm every time confused with this usage of 'back' like in this sentence. Which way does 'back' mean, open or close?[/nq]
Open.
[nq:2]From the context it's clear that she had opened the draperies.[/nq]
[nq:1]But how does draw back mean: open?[/nq]
When they're closed, the left and right sides touch each other in the center. When they are drawn back, they retreat from each other, or "draw back" from each other.
[nq:1]In my image, 'draw curtains back' could mean close them, too.[/nq]
You've got the wrong image and the wrong idiom . We close the drapes or draw the drapes when we close them in English
[nq:1]It may be because I don't have a firm insight into usage of 'back'.[/nq]
Your thinking is too narrow here. It has little to do with "back" and much more to do with idiom. "Back" seems appropriate because it suggests "parting". The English could just as easily have been "draw the drapes apart" and "draw the drapes together" rather than "draw the drapes back" and "draw the drapes". Idioms have to be looked at holistically, not as a concatenation of single words that can be deciphered one by one to arrive at a meaning. The essence of an idiom is that one cannot decipher the whole by analyzing its parts.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I had switched off lamps and drawn draperis back from the sliding glass doors. (P.Cornwell) I'm every time confused with this usage of 'back' like in this sentence. Which way does 'back' mean, open or close?[/nq]
The functional part is the two-word phrase draw back (not draw alone or back alone.) Draw back is idiomatic English, with two independent and unrelated meanings: (1) opening curtains (or something similar)
(2) taking a step backwards.
Drapes or draperies is idiomatic American for curtains. (Fabric stores are called draperies in the UK: but only in the drapery trade are the American terms used, i.e. few Britons name window curtains as drapes or draperies.)

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I had switched off lamps and drawn draperis back from ... this sentence. Which way does 'back' mean, open or close?[/nq]
[nq:1]The functional part is the two-word phrase draw back (not draw alone or back alone.) Draw back is idiomatic English, with two independent and unrelated meanings: (1) opening curtains (or something similar) (2) taking a step backwards. Drapes or draperies is idiomatic American for curtains.[/nq]
First time I've heard that. I always thought that "drapes or draperies" was idiomatic American for "drapes or draperies" and that "curtains" was idiomatic American for "curtains". I'd say that all window drapes are window curtains, but I know that not all window curtains are drapes or draperies in American.
[nq:1](Fabric stores are called draperies in the UK: but only in the drapery trade are the American terms used, i.e. few Britons name window curtains as drapes or draperies.)[/nq]
I don't know any Americans who call window curtains "drapes or draperies". I'm sure there must be some who do, and even some who call 'em "window dresses" or "window gauzes".
(quote: W3NID)
drapery:

3 : a piece of material (as cloth, lace, or plastic) used fordecorative purposes and usually hung in loose folds arranged in a graceful design: as a : clothing or a piece of cloth arranged in graceful folds and worn or represented in art as worn on the human body b : CURTAIN 1a; especially : a curtain of heavy fabric often used over sheer curtains
curtain:

1 a : a piece of material finished with hems, ruffles, pleats, orcasings and hung usually by the top edge on rods or poles at windows or sometimes on beds for decoration, privacy, and control of light and drafts
(/quote)

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I had switched off lamps and drawn draperis back from the sliding glass doors. (P.Cornwell) I'm every time confused with this usage of 'back' like in this sentence. Which way does 'back' mean, open or close?[/nq]
To draw the curtains/draperies - to close them.
To draw back the curtains/draperies - to open them.
[nq:2]From the context it's clear that she had opened the draperies.[/nq]
[nq:1]But how does draw back mean: open? In my image, 'draw curtains back' could mean close them, too. It may be because I don't have a firm insight into usage of 'back'.[/nq]
No, it's not that, it's because you don't have a native-user insight into usage of 'draw' when used with 'curtains'.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]I had switched off lamps and drawn draperis back from ... this sentence. Which way does 'back' mean, open or close?[/nq]
[nq:1]To draw the curtains/draperies - to close them. To draw back the curtains/draperies - to open them.[/nq]
Unfortunately, we hashed this out pretty thoroughly a few years ago, and as I remember there was no unanimity of opinion about that. I think you may be the majority, but there was evidence that a substantial number of people believe the other way around. For me, it's something I encounter more through reading than directly.
I believe I offered the compromise, that "to draw" really means "to pull" and curtains can be pulled together, apart, left, right, across, or back. You can draw curtains open, you can draw them closed. I think we all judge by context. If it's morning, the curtains are closed, so the person pulls the curtains back to let in the light. If it's evening, they pull the curtains across to keep in the warmth and to block the view of passers-by. If it's not a curtain window but a hospital cubicle or something, you figure out that the people wanted privacy and so "drew the curtain". And so on.
But Masa's question of the precise role of "back" makes it even more complicated. My feeling is that this is the "back" in "back to the way it was," as in "Put those back." Which would make the opposite action the original or real thing, in some way, and doing it "back" to undo it. I don't know why closing curtains is any more significant than opening them, why either state should be the "real" state.
[nq:2]But how does draw back mean: open? In my image, ... I don't have a firm insight into usage of 'back'.[/nq]
[nq:1]No, it's not that, it's because you don't have a native-user insight into usage of 'draw' when used with 'curtains'.[/nq]
Nor do a lot of native speakers, either. There's a principle in there, somewhere. When the people around us don't use a word (or phrase, or pronunciation) consistently, it's much harder for each of us to learn the word from context. (So we tend to avoid it, leading to the acceleration of the ignorance, skunkdom, and disappearance of the word.)

Best - Donna Richoux

Usenet · Answer

Masa asks about:
[nq:2]I had switched off lamps and drawn draperis back from the sliding glass[/nq]
Linz Endell:
[nq:1]To draw the curtains/draperies - to close them. To draw back the curtains/draperies - to open them. ... you don't have a native-user insight into usage of 'draw' when used with 'curtains'.[/nq]
No, "draw" means to move them either way. We did this before.

Although "back" can mean "in the opposite direction from last time", what it means here here is "away (from the relevant thing)", in this case "away from the window"; so to "draw back" the curtains is to open them.

Mark Brader, Toronto > "Some people open all the windows: (Email Removed) > wise wives welcome spring by moving the UNIX." ad, Housewife magazine, April 1941

Draw draperies back

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