You are in a restaurant. You are imbibing a beverage with your meal. The server unit approaches you and asks you if you require another beverage, or if the one you have is sufficient for your needs at the moment. You have not finished the beverage that you have, and are not close enough to finishing it to warrant getting another one as long as the server is there. What do you say?
My brother and I have been known in these circumstances to say, “No, thanks. I’m all set.” We both grew up in New York but moved to the greater Boston area as adults, me 15 years ago and he about 12 years ago. We don’t always necessarily say this…one could say “I’m good”, or “No, thanks”, but we do occasionally say “No, I’m all set” because we are indeed, at that particular point in time, all set, at least with respect to our beverage needs.
Apparently people rarely if ever say this phrase (“all set”) in other parts of the country. Brother was down in Nawlins at Super Bowl time, and a colleague of his from Philadelphia insisted that the phrase was a New England regionalism that is not used in other parts of the country. (According to him in Philadelphia in these circumstances they reply “I do not require an additional beverage at this time.” Yeah, right.) I also recall a family get-together from a few years back where distant relatives from Ireland responded with gales of laughter when one of us declined another beer by indicating that we were “all set”.
So, how about it. Have you ever said this phrase under this or similar circumstances? Have you never said it, but imagine a person could and it wouldn’t sound funny? Or does it sound so strange to you that you would really notice if someone else said it? If you could indicate where you are from and/or where you grew up, if relevant, it would be helpful. I would also like to hear from English speakers in other countries.
Basically, my brother and I would be comforted if this was at least a “Northeast” thing rather than a New England thing. Even after all these years, neither he nor I consider ourselves Bostonians.
I grew up in SE Michigan/suburban Detroit and have lived in NE Ohio/Suburban Cleveland for 20 years. “All set” is the phrase that I use in the situation you describe. Most of the quirky phrases that I’ve adopted in my life came from my Mom who grew up in Indianapolis and spent a lot of her childhood on farms in Southern Indiana, so I doubt that I picked it up from the Northeast (unless you are describing the Great Lakes, New York, and New England (plus Pennsylvania?) as the Northeast).
BTW, the Word Detective does not have an explanation for “all set” and apparently assumes that it is sufficiently well known that he uses it to explain “Bob’s your Uncle.”
A Google search on ‘phrase “all set”’ turns up a couple of references to “all set” being from (or originating in) New England, but, if true, it appears to have passed into the common parlance a long time ago.
It’s not uncommon, and doesn’t get odd looks, in Arizona. Then again, as the Arizona Times is so fond of saying, almost everyone in Arizona (with the apparent exception of my family) is from somewhere else, so most likely it just came with those folks.
“Are you all set here?” is not the most common thing I’ve heard in that case. I would expect to hear the waitress say, “Are you O.K. here?” But I would understand the phrase “Are you all set here?” without any problem, and I’ve heard it used a few times. I grew up in Ohio and have lived mostly in Maryland since leaving there. “All set” to me usually means “in good shape and ready to go,” which is not the same thing as “having the things I requested.”
I’m curious. Did your Irish relatives give any inling as to why the thought it was so humorous? Would it have meant something risque or have some other alternate meaning to them that they could not control themselves?
I’m from New York and my parents were both born in Ireland and I lived in Ireland for a few years. I have never had any problem with this phrase.
What Wendell Wagner had to say pretty much covers the way it is in Mississippi. I’ve lived in Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Virginia, California and in all of them they wouldn’t think “all set” was funny and would understand the meaning.
Now when it comes to what you call a milk shake, it is a whole different story.
:mad: [sup]I said milk shake, not chocolate milk[/sup]
Well, that is reassuring. I guess the Philadelphia guy was pulling my brother’s leg, or else he didn’t know what he was talking about. By the way, Wendell Wagner, “all set” is not what the waitperson says, it is one’s reply to the question “Are you okay here?”, or whatever.
Pop: re: the Irish relatives. No, they didn’t say what they found so humorous, but they did giggle several times when they heard it. I guess it just sounded odd to their ears, a phrase they didn’t hear often under those circumstances. My aunt who grew up in Ireland occasionally uses phrases that she grew up with that just sound odd to me, so maybe that was all it was. These particular relatives were rather elderly, in their 70s, so maybe it is a newer usage. I’m not sure what part of Ireland they are from.
It also occured to me that they were merely laughing at the idea that someone would refuse another beer.
I’ve lived in North Carolina all my 22 years and have said and heard this many times. I’ve also traveled a bit (west coast and Canada) and have never had anyone comment on it.
> By the way, Wendell Wagner, “all set” is not what the
> waitperson says, it is one’s reply to the question “Are you okay
> here?”, or whatever.
I’m not sure why that matters. I’m accustomed to the waitress saying, “Are you O.K. here?”, to which I usually reply, “Yes, I’m fine.” For the waitress to say, “Are you all set here?” or for a customer to reply, “Yes, I’m all set” both strike me as something I wouldn’t be too surprised to hear, but neither are quite the typical thing to say in my experience.
I would certianly say I’m set if the waitress or waiter asked if i needed anything else. But if they simply asked if I was “ok” then I would not respond with “all set.”
