What do you call…
Australian blogger Amy posted a list detailing the differences between her vocabulary and her Welsh boyfriend Rob’s. (Amy and Rob are now on vacation in Italy. There is no need to mention the fact that I am wildly jealous, so I won’t.) Here’s my take on her list, which I have modified slightly (borrowing from other versions available on the web).
Preliminary question: Where did you grow up?
The United States, principally in Utah and California.
What do you call:
1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks?
A stream.
2. The thing you push around the grocery store?
A grocery/shopping cart
3. A metal container to carry a meal in?
A lunchbox.
4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in?
A frying pan, skillet or griddle.
5. The piece of furniture that seats three people?
A couch.
6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof?
Gutter and downspout.
7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening?
A porch or verandah, or (if detached) a gazebo or pavilion.
8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages?
Soda.
9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup?
Pancakes.
10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself?
A sub sandwich.
11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach?
A swimsuit.
12. Shoes worn for sports?
Tennis shoes.
13. Putting a room in order?
Picking/cleaning up.
14. The flying insect that glows in the dark?
A firefly.
15. The little insect that curls up into a ball?
A pillbug.
16. The children’s playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down?
A teeter-totter or seesaw.
18. An event where private citizens put up signs in their neighborhood and sell their used stuff?
A yard/garage sale.
19. The evening meal?
Dinner.
20. The floor/area under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
A basement.
21. The thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places?
A drinking fountain.
22. The clothing covering for legs worn on the outside?
Pants.
Feel free to chime in, in the comments or on your own blog/site.
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April 19th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Isn’t the answer to #11 a thong?
;)
BTW, there is no answer to #16. It seems that items of that description have sadly been removed from playgrounds (at least in Utah), along with merry-go-rounds. I miss them.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Derek, remind me never to go to the beach with you…
I’m very suspicious of this newfangled plastic-and-resin playground equipment they’re installing these days. If you can’t crack your head open on it or break your femur falling from it, where’s the fun???
April 19th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
For some reason my last comment didn’t post.
I just posted my own list.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:25 am
I agree with all of yours and would just add some alternatives that I sometimes use.
#1 Brook
#5 Sofa (but only if it has really thick, soft cushions with a floral print)
#8 In Texas we call that coke. “What kind of coke do you want?” “I’ll take a sprite”
#10 Hoagie
#13 Tidy up a room
#15 rolly-poly
April 25th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Shaun, when I was filling out the survey I actually considered some of these (except for #8), but when I thought about it I realized that while I understood those terms, and knew people who used them, and could imagine myself saying them, I didn’t actually use them in normal speech. It was weird to have to step outside my head and actually listen to myself for a change, especially since I live in (and have more or less always lived in) an area where people talk a lot differently than I do. I mean, I’m not a Utahn, and I don’t talk like one—but I’m not a Californian, either, and I don’t talk like a Californian. Or like a Texan, evidently. :D
April 27th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Awww yay for survey goodness! I’ve never heard teeter-totter before, that’s cool.
April 27th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
When I was growing up I hated both names, because “seesaw” had “saw” in it, which sounded dangerous and painful, and “teeter-totter” made it sound like the stupid plank wasn’t securely fixed and was going to fall right the hell off the fulcrum with me on it, which, well, also sounded dangerous and painful.
I was quite the wuss as a kid, if you hadn’t figured that out by now.
June 15th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I just found this.
Why have I just now found this? Odd.
Ready for my inane list? Filled with mystery, intrigue and just straight up belligerence!
1:) crick (Hamiltonian,) creek (correct Hamiltonian,) brook (my aunts on my father side,) rill and rivulet (my mother trying to teach me correct language skills.) I use creek and rivulet the most. But I usually mispronounce rivulet: REE-VUE-LAY. Lazily over a slothful tongue, kinda like Pepe Le Piu. It was mostly in jest of my mother when I was a bastard fucking teenager.
2:) kids, children, ankle-bitters
3:) flask
4:) If I was cooking them IN anything, it would probably be a dutch-oven or a microwave. ON is a different story. Yeah I’m an asshole.
5:) a very small roman bath house.
6:) Magical midgets? Sprites, gnomes, fairies? It must be hard to carry rain. My gutters transport water from off the roof to the ground as to not let it soak into the awning and rot my house.
7:) porch, patio
8:) urine of Satan
9:) eggs, pancakes, sausage patties.
10:) hero, hoagie (preferred,) sub, grinder.
11:) god awful Hawaiian shirts.
12:) cleats, spikes, shit-kickers, tennis shoes…ect. Too many to just pick one.
13:) picking up the bottles and glasses
14:) lightning bugs, target practice.
15:) armadillo bugs (me), wood louse or Armadillidium vulgare (my mother once again.) She always tried to teach me culture, I just thought she was fucking nuts.
16:) fucking stupid. Unless if you had the fat kid sit on the down end and see how many small children you can round up to balance it out. Yeah I was a cruel child. Still am!
17:) I usually call that a numbered incorrectly or missing.
18:) littering
19:) booze of some sort or some part of the female anatomy if I’m lucky.
20:) dead baby storage or the dungeon.
21:) The Gateway fountain
22:) leg warmers
There you go. I love lists. Especially ones that I readmit I’m just an awful human being. By that I mean, normal.
Have a nice day!
June 15th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
My only excuse for the missing 17 is that I compiled this from two different surveys and… yeah, I suck.
It would make my day to see you out and about in leg warmers, Brad. Seriously.