Paper towel or kitchen roll? What do you call it?

[ScotInExile]

I was visiting my SIL recently and while helping clean up after dinner I asked her where she kept her kitchen roll. She looked at me blankly and said 'what?'. I figured she just didn't hear me properly so asked again where the kitchen roll was and was again met with a confused look. I asked if she had any kitchen roll or if she had run out and she really didn't know what I was asking her for. It was only when I started searching and found the roll in the cupboard under the sink that she said 'Ah, you were looking for PAPER TOWEL!'
Now I don't think I'm the unreasonable one here, surely everyone knows that kitchen roll is another name for paper towel?
What do you call it in your house?

Oh don't take my (probably old-fashioned) opinions to heart @Peppermaynt.

Personally I don't like it, especially as paper napkins are so cheap and widely available in nice colours and patterns. But my generally polite and good-mannered husband doesn't see anything wrong with it and it is a sort of joke between us.

I think he would draw the line if we had guests though.

@Desperatelyseekingcommonsense it's mostly when we have things like shell-on prawns, chicken wings, burgers I guess.

The 6 year-old gets a damp cloth.

Agree

@ChocChipHandbag skanky??

PMSL.

as for what I call it... all of the above interchangeably.

Kitchen roll. I think of 'paper towel' as those blue sheets that you pull from a dispenser that are actually more papery.

This.
A 'wet paper towel' is hat Primary schools fix all wounds with.

If she gew up in Australia and it is called paper towel there, fair enough that she calls it that, but if she has lived here 30 years, she must know we call it kitchen roll as that is what it is labelled in every shop. So she was just being obtuse.

Been with my American dh for 8 years, we’ve lived in uk for 7. I’m British. He calls it paper towel and still looks at me blankly when I ask for kitchen roll! Maybe it’s a word she doesn’t hear said often?

I think kitchen roll is the most commonly used name for it. The packaging on the 2 diff brands in my cupboard say kitchen towel not paper towel which I associate with hand drying paper towels in public loos. Incidentally, the stuff we use in our bathrooms never says ‘loo paper’ on the packaging but I don’t think anyone says “Darling, we’ve run out of toilet tissue” 😂

Yep, it’s American English vs. British English.

I’ve only heard “paper towel” since moving to the US, but I always said “kitchen roll” in the UK.

Well you now know what to do when she asks for glad wrap 😂

It's the same as we would say toilet roll too. It's a roll of paper for use in the kitchen or toilet.

Paper towels are individual pieces of paper you get in public toilets not a roll of paper. Having said that I would understand if someone asked for paper towel. I do think SIL was being obtuse.

Having said all that, we don't use it all in our house because I think it's completely unnecessary. If we spill something we use a cloth to wipe it up, and then wash it if it's too filthy to just rinse and reuse. Not sure why everyone feels the need for disposable cleaning products.

I call it kitchen roll but the sainsburys pack we have is called kitchen towel. I’d associate paper towel with what is used in public toilets and schools. But I wouldn’t look blankly at someone. I suspect she was being a little pedantic.

Kitchen Roll. Paper Towel would be what use use to dry hands!

We call it a slice

I call it kitchen roll or kitchen towel.

kitchen towel

Reminds me of the time I went into a local bakery and asked for a baguette. The cashier looked at me blankly and replied "Do you mean a French Stick?" 🙄

Kitchen towel- but if you said "where's your paper towel?" I would know you meant kitchen towel and wouldn't behave like your SIL did

Kitchen roll at home and blue roll / paper towel in work

Kitchen towel but would know what you meant if someone asked for the kitchen roll or paper towel if we were standing in the kitchen.

Thanks to a sailing instructor my husband sailed with once it's known as EBR in our house - stands for Elephants bum roll

Kitchen roll

paper towels are the blue things you get for drying hands in public toilets

Kitchen roll. It’s paper towel in America.

Don’t have any. Use Jay cloths and items like that. Feels like another unnecessary purchase?

Kitchen roll - paper towels are the things we use in schools to mend all ills. Our school is currently out, I'm surprised we're not closed on health and safety grounds? 😆

Well unless toilet roll is a roll of toilet, that theory doesn't stack up!