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People saying pack lunch instead of packed lunch

192 replies

tiredtiredd · Yesterday 10:26

This makes me irrationally angry

OP posts:
MatronPomfrey · Yesterday 17:35

I grew up with it being called pack lunch and you carried it in your pack lunch box. Usually with a matching flask and a cartoon character on the front. Now where I live, people call it “bait”.

HelenaWaiting · Yesterday 17:40

yellowbaby · Yesterday 14:46

I have always used ‘afraid to say’ so not a new thing and my understanding of it was not as fearful but to denote that the person found it unfortunate. So ending a sentence with ‘l’m afraid’ does not in this context mean you are scared.

i agree with your other examples though.

Yes, it's "I'm afraid" or "I'm sorry to say". Conflating the two makes no sense.

Buynow · Yesterday 17:42

My theory is that those who say "pack lunch" have at some time in the past misheard someone calling it packed lunch.
I say packed lunch or pack up. My dad used to say snap , which I quite like but it's not a local description.

My current petrol hate is my dance teacher who announces that she's going to "learn" us a new dance every week.

Realworld10 · Yesterday 17:44

Not actually heard that bit I do hate consistently seeing 'would of'!

Butchyrestingface · Yesterday 17:47

tiredtiredd · Yesterday 10:26

This makes me irrationally angry

It's good that you admit you are irrational about this issue.

Recognition is the first step to cure and this puts you ahead of at least 70% of thread starters on AIBU.

Netcurtainnelly · Yesterday 17:48

Sarnies for my pack lunch 😊

EverMerge · Yesterday 17:50

You’re incorrect. It’s a pack lunch. Every child I know calls it this. So it’s you who is wrong. Next time you start a thread, check in with the majority who use the term.

BriarTime · Yesterday 17:54

LlynTegid · Yesterday 11:31

I understand not liking silly abbreviations. It's well down any list of misuse of the English language.

Such as overuse of literally, big, or referring to things by the word used in the United States. We are in the season of autumn, for example- the Fall is the name of a tv show or a former band from Manchester, not a season.

It really irritates me that Merriam Webster now glosses the use of ‘literally’ meaning ‘practically’. Their defence is that they are descriptive rather than prescriptive, but I always find that a bit thin when clearly dictionaries influence usage as well as just recording it.

It’s ’incredibly’ for me. ‘We take your privacy incredibly seriously’. Why would I find how seriously you take my privacy so hard to believe?! Just how seriously do you take my privacy that I would find the extent of your commitment to it so hard to credit?

JudyTeeny · Yesterday 17:54

It's not regional, the correct term is packed lunch, not pack lunch. Pack up is regional, as is jackbit or snap.

JudyTeeny · Yesterday 17:57

EverMerge · Yesterday 17:50

You’re incorrect. It’s a pack lunch. Every child I know calls it this. So it’s you who is wrong. Next time you start a thread, check in with the majority who use the term.

Then the children have been taught the wrong term. It's packed lunch, not pack lunch.
https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=packed%20lunch

Oxford English Dictionary

The OED is the definitive record of the English language, featuring 600,000 words, 3 million quotations, and over 1,000 years of English.

https://www.oed.com/?tl=true

MotherofPufflings · Yesterday 17:57

EverMerge · Yesterday 17:50

You’re incorrect. It’s a pack lunch. Every child I know calls it this. So it’s you who is wrong. Next time you start a thread, check in with the majority who use the term.

Better tell this lot they're wrong then: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/packed-lunch

packed lunch

1. a light meal put in a bag or container, that you take with you to be eaten…

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/packed-lunch

BriarTime · Yesterday 17:57

Needmorelego · Yesterday 11:25

At my primary school it was called "being on sandwiches".
Regardless of whether your lunch actually contained a sandwich or not.
Although it 99.9% would have contained a sandwich.
No one sent a thermos of pasta in them days.

Yes! When we were in school (Wales) we had to say whether we were on dinners (‘cínio’) or sandwiches (‘brechdanau’) when the teacher took the register in the morning!

EverMerge · Yesterday 17:59

JudyTeeny · Yesterday 17:57

Then the children have been taught the wrong term. It's packed lunch, not pack lunch.
https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=packed%20lunch

I’m joking. I don’t care. But I have a couple of generations left to ruin and correct by telling them it’s pack lunch. (I’m a TA)

BriarTime · Yesterday 18:00

EverMerge · Yesterday 17:50

You’re incorrect. It’s a pack lunch. Every child I know calls it this. So it’s you who is wrong. Next time you start a thread, check in with the majority who use the term.

I don’t think every child you know using that phrase (was it a Google Form you used to run that survey, or?) is robust evidence that OP is wrong, to be honest.

EverMerge · Yesterday 18:00

MotherofPufflings · Yesterday 17:57

Better tell this lot they're wrong then: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/packed-lunch

Sounds like a letter writing English lesson to me! The LO is Persuasive letter.

Inextremis · Yesterday 18:05

PinkyFlamingo · Yesterday 12:43

How can anyone be annoyed by someone saying pack not packed? Seriously? 😂

It infuriates me. I don't know why, but it does. Makes me think of Bolton, which is never a good thing.

rainbowstardrops · Yesterday 18:05

Fuck me.
I can understand that things irritate you, I get that and a lot of things irritate me but to start a thread about someone saying pack lunch instead of packed lunch? Bloody hell, are you having a slow day or something?

EverMerge · Yesterday 18:07

BriarTime · Yesterday 18:00

I don’t think every child you know using that phrase (was it a Google Form you used to run that survey, or?) is robust evidence that OP is wrong, to be honest.

Every single 1! I don’t like google forms. I stand by my point. You are wrong. Sorry.

BriarTime · Yesterday 18:10

rainbowstardrops · Yesterday 18:05

Fuck me.
I can understand that things irritate you, I get that and a lot of things irritate me but to start a thread about someone saying pack lunch instead of packed lunch? Bloody hell, are you having a slow day or something?

😂Is people starting threads about things that irritate them one of the things that irritate you? Is it reasonable to get irritated by people who comment on threads about what people get irritated by expressing their irritation at the existence of the thread?

BriarTime · Yesterday 18:12

EverMerge · Yesterday 18:07

Every single 1! I don’t like google forms. I stand by my point. You are wrong. Sorry.

Apology accepted.

NotSoHotupNorth · Yesterday 18:17

Also called bait (carried in a bait box). Took me a while to get used to that one! -

rainbowstardrops · Yesterday 18:18

BriarTime · Yesterday 18:10

😂Is people starting threads about things that irritate them one of the things that irritate you? Is it reasonable to get irritated by people who comment on threads about what people get irritated by expressing their irritation at the existence of the thread?

I asked the OP if they were having a slow day.

I just can’t imagine having such a boring, easy life to make a post commenting on the difference between two letters in a phrase in AIBU and not in Pedants Corner.
You do you though.

BriarTime · Yesterday 18:25

rainbowstardrops · Yesterday 18:18

I asked the OP if they were having a slow day.

I just can’t imagine having such a boring, easy life to make a post commenting on the difference between two letters in a phrase in AIBU and not in Pedants Corner.
You do you though.

Well, I am a language teacher, so this sort of thing is genuinely interesting to me. I can see that it might be boring to others, though. I’d much rather be discussing this than some of the other stuff that comes up on AIBU, personally. But we’re all hanging out and wasting time on MN, at the end of the day, so I don’t think any of us really has the moral high ground on ‘slow days’.

EverMerge · Yesterday 18:33

BriarTime · Yesterday 18:12

Apology accepted.

Ah you missed the introductory element of the sentence. So the first part of the sentence explains the single word sentence. I totally understand your confusion and do not judge you.

AlwaysExtraHot · Yesterday 19:05

That is annoying. I favour ‘snap’, from my childhood in Derbyshire.
My biggest bugbear in this area though is people missing out the ‘to’ and saying things like ‘I need to go Tesco.’

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