Getting back to the OP, is it possible that the woman in question knew what carrots and cucumbers are but couldn’t think of the words? This could happen if she had some sort of dementia, possibly from a stroke.
When I wear my Eat More Kale shirt people sometimes ask me what kale is.
I was just going to suggest the same idea, Jeff. She may be recovering from some sort of head injury, stroke, or disease affecting her word recall .
Well, to a botanist speaking any language (including any variety of English), Capsicum is the genus for all chiles (peppers), whether sweet or hot.
To a south or southeast Asian English speaker, it’s the common name for just a sweet (a.k.a. “bell”) pepper. I’m not sure what they tend to call spicier varieties – “hot pepper”, maybe? Or sometimes “chillis”? – though one spicy variety, the cayenne, is usually just called “cayenne pepper”.
So, the first time I heard my Malaysian father-in-law call a bell pepper a “capsicum”, I was impressed with his formal botanical knowledge, until I found out how this all works.
Sorry if this was already covered upthread.
I find that at the supermarket it is not uncommon to have to identify/ differentiate between a swede, parsnip and turnip to the young person on the checkout. A mature lady serving will normally be right.
Here’s another bit of terminology difference: in the US we call it a rutabaga (root-uh-bag-uh), not a swede. I find them delicious mashed, but they take forever to cook.
Celery root sometimes causes confusion, too. Some cashiers want to ring it up as a rutabaga/swede or turnip. At stores that have both parsely root and parsnip, those will often cause confusion. I’m surprised anyone gets a turnip or rutabaga confused with a parsnip–they don’t look similar at all. Rutabaga and turnip, I can understand.
Not so weird; we call them prairie oysters if you’re referring to bull testes. Very chewy, BTW. sometimes a local name can trip you up, but not knowing what something as common as a carrot in N.America at least is somewhat strange.
Yay! I’m not the only one! My Mom used to make me ‘chucky eggs and soldiers’ when I was young and when I told my wife about it one day she looked at me like I was off my nut!
Anyone know why they’re called soldiers?
Cuz they are straight and tall and look like soldiers standing at attention?
We only ever ate them with soup.
That’s not why they get confused. They just don’t know which is which.
I was in a burrito joint in London last month*. I asked for some pico. The guy behind the counter looked very confused. I pointed to the mixyure of tomato/onion/cilantro mixture in front of him
“Oh, tomatoes!”
Ah. I guess I grew up with rutabaga, so it would be difficult for me to confuse the two. Like I said, rutabaga and turnip or celery root I can see. But mixing it up with parsnip is like mixing up a potato and carrot. However, I do understand, it depends on what you’re familiar with.
Guano Lad clarified this (thanks) but I’d also make the point that parsnips, turnips and what have you are not frequently used- certainly no where near as common as a carrot. Even more so by younger people I would imagine (hey - they don’t serve them with big Macs).
You’re far from alone- you just may be inadvertantly British- it’s a classic kid’s breakfast over here, and I think pretty common in Australia/New Zealand as well.
No real idea why they’re called soldiers though.
Oh no, I’m intentionally British (and ancestrally half Scottish, so my lower half is constantly at war with my upper half…:D), my mother was born in Lancashire, in Oakham. She moved to Canad’er in '61 and married my dad a few years later.
The Belgians call it witloof; literally, “white leaf”.
Another geographic difference - i think we call that celeriac.
“Celery root” and “celeriac” are used fairly interchangeably here (Chicago). I don’t actually know what term is more common.
I’ve noticed a lot of stores get away with not labeling it at all, throwing it over in the “we’re not sure what it is, either” small bins with horseradish, burdock (gobo), parsnips, et al. I’ve got to hunt down a person to look it up and tell me if it’s ten gazillion dollars a pound this week. If it is labeled, I generally see both on the sign, in approximately equal chance of being first:
Celery Root
Celeriac
or
Celeriac
Celery Root
It’s also often labeled
Celery
or of course
Turnips
:smack:
In France the root is called céleri-rave (rave being French for root) and the stalks céleri-branche. However, the root is often just referred to as céleri - the opposite of what we do in English, where if you say “celery” pretty much everyone will think of the stalks first, or only think of the stalks, not the root at all.
It was amusing when I worked in a bar when celery stalks were part of several drinks. If a new employee, a native English speaker learning French, wasn’t pre-warned about this distinction they’d often call in the produce order and ask for “céleri” and not specify the “branche” part. The next day you’d end up with a giant celery root in the order… not very useful for cocktail making!