To wonder why.. (brace yourself)

[BackAgainSlimLady]

Single cucumbers from the supermarket come wrapped in plastic.. but single courgettes don’t?

if you ask me.. courgettes have a slightly more fragile skin that cucumber.. so why the lack of protection?

The French don't like their language being butched. And neither do the British. Its about identity and cultural heritage.

Standised American English was deliberately simplified and used a more limited vocabulary. Likewise Australian English. In part because there were many immigrants who did not speak English as their first language, thus there were benefits to a more restricted and simplified version of English in that situation.

However to the British this is somewhat irrelevant and we are proud of the diversity of our dialects and slang and how they have contributed to the development of the language. It gives us more words to play with. It is connected with regional identities for this reason too.

Hence why the Midland's Mom always pops up in these conversations.

And so there is something of a particular national pride and distaste for 'bastardised English' words such as zucchini, diaper, eggplant, fall. They are not 'ours'. Hence there's the sound of a nerve being hit, when someone comes along and complains that someone isn't using the 'correct' word zucchini on a British website. Imagine saying 'why aren't you speaking english properly?' to someone from England who doesn't speak another language. Cos thats what happened.

Because in the original - and correct English - they are called courgettes, which I think you are very well aware of! Ask a goady question, expect a goady answer 🙄😉

You are correct. Much of our "functionally illiterate" are immigrants who do not have English as their first language and never learn to read and write in English to reach the level designated for literacy.

I also love the fairly constant "American bashing" on threads. Some I could well counter right back, but I can't be bothered. So, I just laugh. 😉

It’s completely unnecessary to wrap cucumbers in plastic and they start to rot in the veg drawer if you don’t take it off. There is far too much plastic in the world…

Sense of humour failure much? I wasn't being prejudiced - I stated a fact - as did you, which I didn't dispute because I already knew it (and was equally shocked by it).

@RedToothBrush Diaper sounds so wrong when said with an Australian accent. It’s a nappy. Plenty of juvenile sniggering from me and DH when watching a video of an American referring to their fanny or a fannypack or rooting for a team.

That’s not true - they’re courgettes in New Zealand.

Although NZ uses eggplant rather than aubergine. I now want to know why we use some more British-used words and some more US-used words 🤔

Personally, I am enjoying reading posts where people are making dicks of themselves. Not that it is something not on every thread here, but still. 😆

Why is cordial called squash in the UK? As in, the sweet concentrated liquid that you add water to dilute it and make a drink. Flavours include raspberry, sars, ginger, Coola (whatever that is by Cottees), fruit cup, orange, ginger, and lemon lime and bitters. In Australia squash is a type of soft drink, usually lemon flavoured. Possibly only lemon flavoured.

I'm in Scotland and it's usually called diluting juice rather than squash here. Cordial is used as well but they seem to be thicker and more syrupy I think? Lime always seems to be a cordial.

What an stupid comment - do you not realise people have different words for things dependent on what country they come from?

Late to the party... So late the last train had gone.

We have the Persian that’s wrapped in the plastic, its skin is easier to eat. Then we have what I assume is the American cucumber which if fatter, more bitter and is waxed to keep it fresh. Then we have the small pickling ones that don’t have to be peeled by I do anyway. And then there’s this new one that are small and for salads packed in packaged of about 6, I’m assuming these are for just snacking and salads. The last one is these tiny snacking cucumber that are about 2 inches small. They’re very nice and sweet but they only are around for a very short season. I don’t remember which but I think it’s late summer.

South African here - we know them as eggplant and zucchini as well, however it’s more common for us to refer to them as baby marrows and brinjal. Brinjal especially in KwaZulu Natal where there’s a high Indian population.

I love the smaller ones and the seedless ones. I also love the small red and yellow sweet peppers that you can stuff with jalapeño or chive cream cheese.
The small cukes and peppers are nice for children's lunches as they are easier and less messy to eat.

Its English english as opposed to American english.

Courgette is used in New Zealand .

Why is cordial called squash in the UK? As in, the sweet concentrated liquid that you add water to dilute it and make a drink.

I think when I was a kid 'squashes' were the ones made from whole oranges or lemons, which were cloudy - pretty literally very squashed fruit.
Whereas cordials like lime were clear - I assume made from juice and zest oils, not the whole fruit.

That distinction, if it existed, has rather been lost with the many and various flavours available now.

Looking up the etymology, that seems about right for orange/lemon squash but more interestingly the vegetable squash has a completely different derivation - not yet another from the French/latin/germanic but Narraganset (Algonquian) askutasquash .

www.etymonline.com/word/squash

A true American word!

You know those words that make less sense the more you say them.......I give you courgette.....I am doubting the word really exists now 😎

Also no, it isn't. it's is POSSESSIVE. ie it is. Otherwise its is fine

It's is a contraction of it is. "It's equally correct to call the vegetable we are discussing an aubergine or an eggplant"

Its is possessive. "Its name can be either aubergine or eggplant"

And yes, its eggplant is wrong.

I'm in Scotland - it's squash.

I'm a Brit living in Canada. I read a lot of UK authors, and I find that a lot of books are heavily edited for publication in the North American market. I can't remember an exact example, but the type of thing I mean would be Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus driving on the M8 "freeway" and stopping for "fish and fries." Seriously. It's like the publishers think their readers are too thick to work out what an unfamiliar term means. I've never seen the equivalent in a US/Canadian author published in the UK.

But have you ever put a cucumber behind a cat, just out of its line of vision to make them jump?

It sounds like quite a cruel thing to do but apparently they think it's a snake. Might be an urban myth or social media hoax but I have no access to either a cat or a cucumber at present to prove it and I don't know anyone who would be happy if I turned up at their house with a cucumber and asked if I could frighten their cat with it. Maybe a few years ago I did but I mix in better circles these days.

Best answer 👏🏿

That's interesting because as someone who lives in the United States I have read several books recently that I could tell even though the book was set in the United States that the author was British, because of the words that were used.

Just to ask - after the well hashed aubergine/courgette furore (they are always well hashed due to being mushy and bland)

Anyone still get syboes instead of scallions or spring onions?
And if you do - where do you come from?