Baaa

[drplokta]

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks.
2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called.
3. A metal container to carry a meal in.
4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in.
5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof.
7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach?
12. Shoes worn for sports.
13. Putting a room in order.
14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
15. The little insect that curls up into a ball.
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.
17. How do you eat your pizza?
18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
19. What's the evening meal?
20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
21. What do you call the thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places?


And my answers:

1. Stream.
2. Shopping trolley.
3. Lunchbox.
4. Frying pan.
5. Sofa.
6. Gutter or drainpipe, depending on what bit they mean.
7. Does not exist in my culture. If it did, I'd probably call it a veranda.
8. There is no term that includes all such drinks and excludes all other drinks. There used to be one, which was pop, but it's dropped out of use.
9. No such thing. However, pancakes are a flat round dessert served with a variety of sweet substances.
10. Sandwich. All more specific terms are American imports.
11. Swimming trunks or shorts, depending on whether we're talking about swimming trunks or shorts.
12. Trainers, plimsolls, football boots, rugby boots, cricket boots, tennis shoes, etc.
13. Tidying up.
14. Firefly.
15. Woodlouse, but it's not an insect.
16. See-saw.
17. Knife and fork, generally.
18. eBay. Apart from that, it's an American concept, so there's no term for it in English.
19. Dinner.
20. Basement. But it contains neither a furnace nor a rec room.
21. Drinking fountain.

This survey will distinguish between different national varieties of English, and probably between different regions in the US, but is going to be hopeless for regional variations in the UK.

Comments

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

Creek
Shopping Cart
Lunchbox
Frying Pan
Sofa
Gutter
Porch
Soda
Pancakes
Sub Sandwich
Swimming Trunks
Gym Shoes
Tidying Up
Firefly
(never knew a name for it)
Teeter-Totter
In small squares, with my hands
Yard Sale
Dinner or Supper
Bssement
Water Fountain

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there's a similar one for the UK -- which would, incidentally, include 'what do you call the evening meal', together with 'what do you call the area of your face between your eyes and your hair?'

I put eBay for 18 too -- but I think Car Boot Sale is better.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

See my new improved version!!!

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and for no. 10, in what way is 'baguette' not a perfectly correct answer in your culture?

[drplokta]

"Baguette" is unsatisfactory because it includes long bread that is not cut in half and filled, and excludes many kinds of long sandwiches, such as those sold by Subway.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Nevertheless, nearly all the Brits who have answered this question have picked 'baguette', and I would argue that the sentence 'I'm just popping out to grab a baguette for lunch' is perfectly comprehensible and plausible.

[drplokta]

Only with the additional information of "for lunch". If you leave the office at 6pm and say "I'm going to pick up a baguette on my way home", it's ambiguous in the extreme.

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

I'd call 1 a beck, which I know is a regional dialect term (Lancashire).

[wag-9393.livejournal.com]

I grew up in the North-East and we used the term beck - but for the very smallest. A stream in my book is bigger than a beck and smaller than a river :-0

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

No, rills are definitely smaller than becks around my part of the woods.

[damienw]

Creek/Shopping trolley/Lunchbox? (metal?)/Frying pan/Couch/Gutter/Verandah/Soft drinks/um? oats? pancakes? doughnuts?/sandwich/bathers/sneakers/tidying up/a flying insect that glows in the dark!! run!!/um, a slater?/see-saw/with my fingers/garage sale/tea/ah hah hah... um, cellar?/drinking fountain

What I think is more interesting, but much harder to probe in these sorts of inane US pseudo-linguistic exercises, is the range of variation available in idiolects, and where the boundaries are. For example, sports shoes: I don't really have a single term other than "sports shoes" for the class now, although as a child I would have said sneakers or maybe footy boots, and I would distinguish between cellars and basements perhaps in ways that others might not.

[drplokta]

I, too, distinguish between cellars and basements, as the house where I grew up has both a cellar and a basement. The basement is below ground at the front but half a storey off the ground at the back, as the ground level at the front of the house is one and a half storeys higher than the ground level at the back. The cellar is under the basement, and so well underground at the front but only half a storey below ground level at the back.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

What was interesting to me was how many words the US yoof finds basic which are foreign concepts to us - yard sales, sub sandwiches, verandas, fireflies - it emphasised what a foreign country it really IS.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Plenty of local variations even within the USA. The "submarine sandwich" (which is where Subway sandwhich shops get their name) is, in the New Orleans area, called a "po'boy." (Etymology disputed)

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

Brook
Shopping trolley
Buttybox
Frying pan
Sofa or if I'm Being Northern, settee
Gutter or Rainwater Goods if I'm at work
Veranda
Bottle or can of pop
Crumpet
Baguette or roll
Swimming trunks
Trainers or if Being Northern, pumps
Tidying up
Firefly
Woodlouse
Seesaw
Knife and fork
Nowadays, that'd be Ebay
Tea, unless I'm Being Posh, then Dinner
Cellar
Water fountain

FF

[deor.livejournal.com]

1. Stream.
2. Shopping cart.
3. Lunchbox.
4. Frying pan.
5. Sofa.
6. Gutter.
7. Porch.
8.Soda.
9. Pancake. Unless it's corrugated, and then it's a waffle.
10. Sub (pref). Maybe hero or hoagie.
11. Bathing suit. Trunks. Speedo.
12. Sneakers.
13. Tidy. Clean up.
14. Firefly (pref.) or lightning bug.
15. Earwig
16. See-saw (pref.) or teeter-totter.
17. Pick up a slice, fold slightly, eat from point towards crust.
18. Garage sale. Yard sale. Lawn sale.
19. Dinner.
20. Basement.
21. Drinking or water fountain.