what do you call it?
Apr. 9th, 2008 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacThis quiz makes me feel alternately clueless and crotchety.
1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks.
Body of water? That would be a pond. The word I use for what I think you mean is "creek", but if it has a single current, and certainly if (like our creeks) it's dry most of the year, it's not a body of water.
2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called.
Shopping cart.
3. A metal container to carry a meal in.
A metal container to carry a meal in? What? I hadn't the slightest idea what this could possibly refer to - the metal trays they used to have in army cafeterias? - until I read![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cakmpls's answer: lunchbox. Yeah, that's what it's called, but I had devoted not a single neuron of memory to this topic since I was ten years old.
4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in.
Frying pan, or skillet. And it's bacon or eggs, not both at the same time.
5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
Um, three people can sit at a table. But that's probably not what you mean. I guess you mean couch or sofa (interchangeable terms), but in my family it sat a maximum of two people, because at least one of those two people would sprawl out. Trying to seat three people on one was asking for trouble.
6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof.
Drainspout. "Gutter" refers just to the part on the edge of the roof.
7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
Nobody does that where I come from. But a solid (usually concrete) area on the ground immediately adjacent to the house for outside recreation is called a patio, whether it's covered or not. An elevated wooden one is called a deck.
8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
That depends on what it is. If it's a Coke I call it a Coke. If it's root beer I call it root beer. If it's 7-up I call it 7-up. I rarely used a generic term for these things in childhood, and if I did, it was "soft drink". One might say, "Do you want a Coke?" with the understanding that the person asked might respond by specifying something else, but "Coke" itself was not taken to mean anything except a cola (Coca-cola, Pepsi, or the very rare R.C., which were pretty interchangeable as far as we were concerned).
9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
Again, I tried to imagine what this mysterious-sounding object could be. Edible flying saucer? Felt pretty foolish when I saw her answer: pancake.
10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
I don't call that anything, because I don't like what's usually put on them. But I believe that where I come from it's normally called a sub. So is a submersible naval vessel, but I'm unaware of any connection between them.
11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach.
Swimming trunks. Occasionally called swimsuit, which is also the name for a woman's one-piece.
12. Shoes worn for sports.
This word has changed over the years. Now it's sneakers. In my childhood it was Keds, the name of a maker of same.
13. Putting a room in order.
Cleaning up if it's messy, straightening up if it's already clean.
14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
Firefly. I only heard of these from books, where the term "lightning bug" was also used: I was well into adulthood before I ever saw one, and that was 2000 miles from home. I could hardly believe that they actually existed.
15. The little insect that curls up into a ball.
Pillbug. Those we had.
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.
Seesaw.
17. How do you eat your pizza?
There's a word for this? I eat it with my mouth. How do you eat your pizza?
18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
Garage sale. Despite the fact that it's usually held out on the front lawn, it's still called a garage sale. And you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway.
19. What's the evening meal?
Dinner, unless it's very informal and catch-as-catch-can, in which case it's supper.
20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
This thing is very rare where I come from. When it exists it's called a basement. What's under most houses around here is called the crawl space.
21. What do you call the thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places?
Water fountain. The thing you get water out of to drink outside at private homes is called the garden hose.
1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks.
Body of water? That would be a pond. The word I use for what I think you mean is "creek", but if it has a single current, and certainly if (like our creeks) it's dry most of the year, it's not a body of water.
2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called.
Shopping cart.
3. A metal container to carry a meal in.
A metal container to carry a meal in? What? I hadn't the slightest idea what this could possibly refer to - the metal trays they used to have in army cafeterias? - until I read
cakmpls's answer: lunchbox. Yeah, that's what it's called, but I had devoted not a single neuron of memory to this topic since I was ten years old.4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in.
Frying pan, or skillet. And it's bacon or eggs, not both at the same time.
5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
Um, three people can sit at a table. But that's probably not what you mean. I guess you mean couch or sofa (interchangeable terms), but in my family it sat a maximum of two people, because at least one of those two people would sprawl out. Trying to seat three people on one was asking for trouble.
6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof.
Drainspout. "Gutter" refers just to the part on the edge of the roof.
7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
Nobody does that where I come from. But a solid (usually concrete) area on the ground immediately adjacent to the house for outside recreation is called a patio, whether it's covered or not. An elevated wooden one is called a deck.
8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
That depends on what it is. If it's a Coke I call it a Coke. If it's root beer I call it root beer. If it's 7-up I call it 7-up. I rarely used a generic term for these things in childhood, and if I did, it was "soft drink". One might say, "Do you want a Coke?" with the understanding that the person asked might respond by specifying something else, but "Coke" itself was not taken to mean anything except a cola (Coca-cola, Pepsi, or the very rare R.C., which were pretty interchangeable as far as we were concerned).
9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
Again, I tried to imagine what this mysterious-sounding object could be. Edible flying saucer? Felt pretty foolish when I saw her answer: pancake.
10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
I don't call that anything, because I don't like what's usually put on them. But I believe that where I come from it's normally called a sub. So is a submersible naval vessel, but I'm unaware of any connection between them.
11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach.
Swimming trunks. Occasionally called swimsuit, which is also the name for a woman's one-piece.
12. Shoes worn for sports.
This word has changed over the years. Now it's sneakers. In my childhood it was Keds, the name of a maker of same.
13. Putting a room in order.
Cleaning up if it's messy, straightening up if it's already clean.
14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
Firefly. I only heard of these from books, where the term "lightning bug" was also used: I was well into adulthood before I ever saw one, and that was 2000 miles from home. I could hardly believe that they actually existed.
15. The little insect that curls up into a ball.
Pillbug. Those we had.
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.
Seesaw.
17. How do you eat your pizza?
There's a word for this? I eat it with my mouth. How do you eat your pizza?
18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
Garage sale. Despite the fact that it's usually held out on the front lawn, it's still called a garage sale. And you park in a driveway and drive on a parkway.
19. What's the evening meal?
Dinner, unless it's very informal and catch-as-catch-can, in which case it's supper.
20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
This thing is very rare where I come from. When it exists it's called a basement. What's under most houses around here is called the crawl space.
21. What do you call the thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places?
Water fountain. The thing you get water out of to drink outside at private homes is called the garden hose.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 12:29 pm (UTC)I once saw a sign advertising a "Graj sale".
no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 01:56 pm (UTC)As for my answers that differ from yours --
I'd call the #7 a "porch" and I call #8 "pop" and #12 is "tennies".
no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 02:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 03:08 pm (UTC)But then I have too, since my response to these is generally a thesaurus type. It's interesting to me that for number 20, I haven't seen anyone answer "cellar" yet. Although generally (in the northern States), "cellars" don't get converted into rec rooms - they are generally storage spaces (wine cellar, vegetable cellar, coal cellar). Basements get converted to rec rooms.
How flexible English is! What variety we indulge in, with so many colorations.
River, gorge, stream, brook, brill, creek, bayou. (Not necessarily in sense of gradation.)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 03:11 pm (UTC)1. The classical geographical definitions do refer to a river as a "body of water". The question is looking for stream, brook, creek etc.
2. Also "grocery cart" or "shopping basket."
3. Also "lunch bucket" or "lunch pail."
4. In a big enough frying pan, you can cook bacon and fry eggs at the same time. The bacon grease flavors the eggs.
5. Sofa, couch, or davenport.
7. Decks or patios are uncovered in my opinion; porch or "veranda" if you are a Southerner.
8. Soda, or "pop." Some places in the South I gather that any carbonated sweet beverage is a "Co'cola," even if it is a grape Nehi-.
9. Also "flapjack" or griddle cake.
10. A sub sandwich is called that because the cigar shape of the loaf mimics that of old-time pre-WWII submarines. "Hoagie," "grinder" and "Garibaldi" are all more or less cognate terms with minor differences.
12. When I was a kid, "tennis shoes" or "gym shoes".
15. Also "sowbug" or "woodlouse."
16. Teeter-totter.
20. Basement or "cellar". My grandfather used "cellar."
21. The term "bubbler" is used in Wisconsin, and, aparrently, Australia.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 06:12 pm (UTC)This quiz is asking what you call things. There is no single "right" answer. And I don't call something a body of water if it's flowing.
The bacon grease flavors the eggs.
That's why I don't cook them at the same time. Ycch.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-10 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-10 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 07:31 pm (UTC)