There are some things in life that you prefer to be clingy,
and some you don’t. Plastic wrap = yes; children and romantic partners = no.
You might think that a word like “clingy” is modern, and
that clinginess is a contemporary trait born of a kind of socio-pathology we
associate with the overly coddled. But it’s not quite — the word clingy dates back to 1710, where it
meant to grip on to things (from the Old English clingan, to hold fast, or adhere), though the use of it to describe
people is pretty new — from 1969. Apparently people could let go more easily
before the hippies came along.
Cling film, known by various trade names involving the word “wrap,”
has been adopted by the food service industry because of four essential
qualities: it can stick to itself and smooth surfaces (the “cling”); is
impermeable (won’t leak); is lightweight, and transparent.
Do not wrap your babies in plastic |
Sometimes plastic wrap isn’t used to preserve food at all,
but as a binder, where great gobs of it are wrapped around things in lieu of
rope. Whole sets of luggage, for example, originating from tropical places
wherein scary insects might be hiding, used to be routinely cocooned in plastic
wrap. (I once saw a very large and foul-smelling puddle of aged blood
collecting underneath a set of such baggage that had either been abandoned or
was waiting for its owner to claim at Heathrow airport. Clearly the suitcases
held a carcass of some kind.)
As the delightful ad above also hints, plastic wrap can be
used to envelop a living person for kinky pursuits, as this gentleman obviously
knows.