April 07, 2003

Context

In the US, fries are fries and chips are chips.
In Britain, fries are chips and chips are crisps.
In Nova Scotia, fries are chips and chips are also chips.

"But how do you tell the difference?" I asked my husband.
"Context," he replied serenely.

You'd think that answer would satisfy me.

Posted by Miss Anthropy at April 7, 2003 11:15 PM
Comments

In Austria, potatoes are Erdäpfel, in Germany they are Kartoffeln.
Strawberries are Ananas in Austria, in Germany they are Erdbeere. In Germany Ananas means pineapple.
In Austria, Ananas also means pineapple.

Posted by: Mig at April 8, 2003 06:56 AM

in France, Ananas means pineapple as well. I used to have a problem remembering that ananas was not banana, "banane" is banana. Now, I remember.

But hey, in Canada you can get um.... poutine! I think that's the name, those fries with the gravy and the crumbled cheese curd. yum.

Posted by: kim at April 8, 2003 10:14 AM

Since the Austrian word for potato translates as earth-apple, I'm guessing it was stolen from the French, something the Austrians used to do a lot, so that would partly explain Ananas too. Just not how it came to mean strawberries.

Posted by: Mig at April 8, 2003 10:23 AM

Some strawberries are called Fragaria ananassa in Latin, just to add to the confusion. Can't quite see the similarities meself though.

Posted by: Karine at April 8, 2003 11:49 AM

indeed, potatoes are indeed earth-apples. funny how so many of the western european languages just merge all over the place.

Posted by: kim at April 8, 2003 03:00 PM

As I traveled across the States, I was always amused by the changes in local catch-all terms for a soft drink. In Arizona, it was "pop." In New York, it was "soda." On a road trip somewhere in the Midwest, I came across a place where they called everything "coke." "What do you want to drink? - Coke. - What kind? - Pepsi," is a snippet of an actual conversation.

Posted by: Alex at April 8, 2003 04:55 PM