Serviettes. Did I ask for something strange?

[ALongHardWinter]

There were no serviettes on the stand for sauces,straws etc so I asked the server for some. He gave me a funny look and said 'Some what?' I repeated my request but he still looked blank. So I said 'Tissues?'. He said 'Oh right. I've never heard them called serviettes'. Really? That's what I've always called them. Anyone else encountered a blank look when asking for a supposedly common place item?

We didn’t say serviettes or napkins in our household when I was growing up. We called it kitchen roll

As a French teacher, I always found the kids were fascinated by the versatility of the noun "serviette" in French, with its three diverse meanings: napkin, bath towel and briefcase.

"We didn’t say serviettes or napkins in our household when I was growing up. We called it kitchen roll."

We still do. Except at Christmas when we have some nice Christmassy serviettes.

serviettes is definitely the appropriate term for the ones you grab from places like McDonalds or Greggs.

As far as I know, Nancy Mitford was never in a McDonalds or Greggs, so we have no idea what the socially correct term is. Disaster.

I agree with you OP, I would have said serviette too and would have expected him to know what I meant. I think of serviettes as being the smaller, tissue like things you get at fast food places, coffee shops and takeaways and "napkins" the better quality paper or linen, larger ones you get at a restaurant where you sit down and eat with cutlery.

No Mitford girl would ever "grab" a paper towel, serviette, napkin or any other such item, as grabbing would have been bred out. Unless land of course. Or Poland if a fan of the Third Reich.
A Mitford girl would dantily pluck.

Daintily .
But shocked not picked up by autocorrect.

Didn't Nancy Mitford's Radletts say 'lav' rather than 'loo'?

(We often quote Phone for the Fish Knives Norman when we're putting out the good cutlery. )

I say serviettes. Never napkin.

lborgia the people criticising your choice of vocabulary sound like grade A pricks. Or whatever the appropriate idiomatic Aussie slang is for that.

Cat - thanks for that, made me feel better.

I think it’s inverse snobbery. I have seriously been thinking about elocution lessons to try and soften my accent, and make it a bit more Australian. But that seems even more depressing.

This thread has prompted a thread about whether MN is snobby or not. Lots of talk of inverse snobbery, which I think I might be experiencing.

Anyway, thank you.

I thought they were napkins if disposable and serviettes if washable.

Oh just rtt - looks like I have been using the terms the wrong way round!

We had serviettes growing up in the seventies. I’m afraid we now have kitchen roll.
Loo
Settee
Lunch and supper
Sitting room
No eating in the street
Not sure what that makes me!

I knew when I saw the word "serviette" in the thread title that 90 percent of the replies would be "I call it napkin".

Me too. 😅

And I knew a reference to U and Non-U would occur very early on in the thread.

All this talk of u and non-u makes me glad I no longer live in the UK.

Could not help thinking of this thread in Costa today

The Mitfords were a strange and often unpleasant lot, and if I recall the daughters received very little in the way of formal education. Not sure why they're so lauded on MN.

Christ, that Costa napkin must be seething with germs - how many faces has the poor thing wiped in 47 years?

Wow, I love how in Ireland, saying serviette says nothing about you. Saying mantelpiece says nothing about you. You don't have to watch what you say all the time. Pudding dessert toilet loo..

Wait, hang on, what’s the issue with mantelpiece? Are you meant to say mantel if you’re posh?

Serviettes growing up (WC, Scottish) and napkins now.

Did you ask for a cruet as well? Adrian Mole tries to pack a cruet and serviettes in his suitcase when he runs away from home as a teenager ("Growing Pains of Adrian Mole").

Loving the kitchen roll.
We have a bog and dh refers to poo paper.
The only acceptable letters above the bed would spell FUCK.

We are anything but twee although I do like a soup spoon and pastry fork. It took me years to get the dc to use a serviette or napkin to wipe their hands at the table i instead of using their clothes. I admire all those whose dc wouldn't dream of using their trpusers or skirt (or the chair) for a sly wipe. They must be very U indeed.

Wanderings wins the prize for mentioning Adrian Mike who would be so at home on this thread. I adore Sue Townsend's writing about class, from Bert Baxter's beetroot sandwiches to Adrian delivering the broadsheets to Pandora's detached house on his paper round.

@LockedOutOfMN Thanks! Re the broadsheets, there was a time when he delivered The Sun there by mistake, and the "heavy papers" to the council estate. "I don't know why everyone went so mad. You'd think they would enjoy reading a different paper for a change."

He usually said lavatory, and told the country live on Radio 4 that he would make particular reference to his toilet habits.

Also the way he constantly mentioned brand names:
We bought a Habitat lampshade.
I am sick of sleeping with my Sony Walkman on.
Pandora's dad's Volvo, Mr Scruton's Ford Cortina, my father's Montego, rarely just "their car"!
I knocked a pile of Outspan oranges on to the floor, and with horror realised that I had left the shop with an Outspan orange in each hand.
Her breasts were slightly larger than Jaffa oranges, but not quite as large as Marks and Spencer's grapefruits.

Actually, this reminds me of a time when my parents asked for some croissants, in a posh café. My parents pronounced it as the French do, with the rolled R. The waiter stared blankly, until my parents pointed at them on the menu.

The waiter's eyes lit up, and he said: "Oh! You mean (if you can imagine the pronunciation)... kwassons!"