Re: [YAEUT] Lexical variation survey

Some random comments on some of these distinctions:
>
> >> 6. stuff you throw away:
> >> garbage, rubbish, trash
In the US at least, garbage seems to refer to kitchen remnants, trash to
anything else; I (we?) don't seem to use rubbish in that sense at all.  The
big outdoor container (that the Trash Fairy empties every week) used to be
the _garbage can__ and was actually made of metal; now it's a huge plastic
thing, which I call simply "The Garbage" (as "Let's take this out to The
Garbage"). Sometimes called [gar'baZ].
>
>
> >> 8. a shallow pan for frying eggs or meat:
> >> fry pan, frying pan, griddle, skillet, spider
Spider is a very old term; IIRC in the days when one cooked directly on the
fire, the "skillet" had little legs, so that it didn't sit directly on the
coals.........Griddle is definitely a distinct utensil.
>
> >> 9. a piece of chocolate, 4-6 inches long:
> >> bar, candy bar, chocolate bar
When I was a child, there was only ONE all-chocolate bar, the "Hershey bar";
others (with nuts, caramel, nougat etc) were "candy bars".

>
> >> 10. a carbonated, non-alcoholic beverage, like Coke or Sprite:
> >> coke, cola, cold drink, fizzy drink, pop, soda, soda pop, soft drink,
>tonic
"coke" is definitely a brand name; IIRC in the olden days (and still
sometimes? in the South) it's called a "dope"  ha ha...... pop was generic,
could be carbonated or not-- the distinction soda vs. pop is fairly recent,
for me. Soda also (for me) mainly refers to carbonated/seltzer water that I
mix with Scotch.........  Tonic is/was Boston area generic for soda/pop,
almost nowhere else; now refers to the various brands of "quinine water"
that goes with gin so nicely..........  Anyone remember ~ever drink Moxie?
another New England item (me, once; ugh)

> >> 12. a cold sandwich on a foot-long roll:
> >> sub(marine), hero, hoagie, grinder
I only encountered these words/the item in college in Boston, only after age
18. I think each one was specific to one or another East coast city--
Boston, New York, Phila-- but I'm not sure which was which. I've come to
suspect that "hero" may be a corruption of the Greek "gyros".  Mediterranean
ethnic food of any sort was unheard of in South Dakota in the 1930s-50s
(spaghetti came in cans)-- many local restaurants were run by Greeks, but
they wouldn't have DARED put anything ethnic on the menu.........

> >> 22. a piece of furniture that seats 3 people:
> >> couch, chesterfield, davenport, divan, settee, sofa
davenport is old but interchangeable with couch, sofa; chesterfield is a
specific type-- usually with buttoned upholstery and nowadays often leather.
Divan would have been hoity-toity. A settee only seats 2 adults, also called
a loveseat. (I wonder if "couch" might originally have been for reclining?)
Also: hassock = footstool = ottoman = pouf (poof?). As an avid fan of
"Antiques Roadshow" I've learned a lot of very specific terms for all sorts
of furniture.

> >
> >> 23. a piece of furniture with drawers for socks, underwear, etc.:
> >> bureau, chest (of drawers), drawers, dresser, highboy
Yes, the dresser often had a large mirror attached; I think the mirror-less
model might have been a bureau (or maybe =) chest of drawers and (old)
highboy, which were much the same, except properly I think a "highboy" is
much taller. Then there was the "dressing table" (with mirror) at which
milady sat to do her makeup etc.

Aside: Borges suggested a biography of Napoleon that would detail every time
he thought of the Pyramids. I have a mental autobiog. involving when/where I
first ate various foods :-))))

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