I’d agree it meets the basic definition of a sandwich. Its meat on bread, toppings of mustard, onions. Sometimes ketchup. Its very portable and requires only one hand.
I wouldn’t ask somebody to bring me a sandwich from a food counter and expect a hot dog. But I’d roll with it and not say anything if they came back with hot dogs and sodas. .
It’s a sandwich in a fuzzy sense, it partially belongs to the set of sandwiches, but not as strongly as some other things. If you told me you think of a hot dog as a sandwich, well, fine, I totally see your logic. However, if I asked you to get me a sandwich and you brought back I hot dog I’d wonder if you were having a bit of a laugh at my expense.
I’d need to know which question you are asking. Are you asking if putting a frankfurter on bun makes it sandwich? Or are you asking whether the word “hot dog” necessarily refers to the version with a bun?
The first answer is yes–it meets all the requirements. Just because you probably don’t mean a hotdog when you ask for a sandwich doesn’t mean anything, as that’s just inferred from the lack of specificity. If I talk about seeing a “bird,” you generally don’t think I’m talking about a chicken.
The answer to the second question is no. A “hot dog” can be the meat or the sandwich. And, unlike “hotdog,” it can also refer to my dachshund when he sleeps too close to the heater, or what he thinks of my chihuhua who is currently in heat.
Left out a sentence: Most people, if they saw a chicken, would just say they saw a chicken. “Bird” has taken on an additional meaning in some contexts as “not-chicken.”
I can’t remember the name for the linguistic concept.
Ditto for South Africa. It feels wrong (in an almost Lovecraftian sense) to refer to a Big Mac as a sandwich. It’s a burger. Burgers aren’t sandwiches.
Ditto here.
As to the question about a single slice folded over: is the nett effect that of a normal sandwich cut in half? Then it’s half a sandwich. Or is it more like a taco? Then it’s something else.
The idea of sausage-in-a-bunpredates America by quite a bit.
Chicken burger or fish burger, rather than ‘bun’.
No it isn’t.
Also, after reading two pages of this, the word “sandwich” looks really weird.
There was a time when “Yes” had a pretty comfortable 60-40% lead… now “No” is ahead by a single vote! :eek: (2 votes if Siam Sam would vote.)
I blame the Australians. 
So, I’m trying to get this straight… If I use two slices of bread it is fine to call it a sandwich. If I use one and fold it it is a half sandwich, but if I cut it it is two pieces so it is a full sandwich again. If I cut the bread horizontally it becomes a bun and may or may not be a sandwich, but if I cut it most of the way through but not completely it becomes a roll and no longer a sandwich.
What if I cut a double width slice from a loaf and then cut it down the middle but not quite all the way through so it looks like two slices of bread but it is still barely attached at the bottom. Then I fill the void with something edible. Is it or is it not a sandwich? Does it matter the dimensions of the bread?
I’m scared to even contemplate a pita, and no longer feel I’m going to be able to eat lunch again because I won’t know what I’m eating.
Life was more simple before the Dope got involved.
Ah, I see. We have “chicken burger” and “turkey burger” here in the US (moreso the latter), but they have a different meaning: those would consist of ground chicken or turkey formed into a patty and cooked like a beef hamburger. (At least that’s how I’ve always seen and heard it.)
The menus give prices for “meals” that supply fries and drinks with the burgers, do they not? What term identifies prices for burgers without fries and drinks?
I’m going to guess “burger.” (I did find some McDonald’s menu earlier–but I forget from which country–that did have “burger” in the place where “sandwich” would be found on American menus.)
um no its barely even food
Oh, it’s food alright… about two days worth calorie wise.
Well, logic and nomenclature don’t often have much to do with one another.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone refer to a hot dog as a sandwich in my life.
If I tell you that we’re having sandwiches at my cookout this weekend, do you think, “oh, he must mean hot dogs” or “what kind of idiot serves sandwiches at a cookout?”
If you wanted to argue abstract categories I would say its a cousin to the sandwich, not a sibling.
Can’t speak to Australia. Walk into any non fast food restaurant in the US that serves burgers as part of their fare. Look at the menu. The burgers (and hot dogs, if they have them) will be listed under the heading “Sandwiches”, along with grilled cheese, BLTs, Reubens, and the like. I’d be safe in saying that this is the case nearly 100% of the time.
Well, I would say it’s like the bird analogy above. If I hear someone “keeps birds” or has a “pet bird,” I’d be surprised if ends up being a “chicken,” because that’s way down on the list of what I think of when I think of “birds.” But chickens are undoubtedly birds. (Ostriches and emus would also fit into this “atypical bird” category. ISTM that people keep flightless birds in a special category mentally, though they are clearly birds.) I’m sure there are countless other examples like this.
If somebody uses the term “sandwich” generically, I admit, I don’t think of hot dogs or hamburgers off the bat, yet I certainly do consider both sandwiches, and there is little argument in the US whether the latter is a sandwich. I also would not think of hot open-faced sandwiches, either, but “sandwich” is the nomenclature for those, too. (Cold open faced sandwiches, I may, because I grew up in an open-faced sandwich eating culture.) Same with lobster rolls. That you will find on menus under “sandwiches” (at least where I’ve seen them), but they only really differ from hot dogs in terms of filling. (The bun is slightly different, being cut from the top rather than the side, but hot dogs in the Boston area are served on this style of bun, too.)
This is akin to the question “Is a chicken a dinosaur?”. I think it’s a confusing way to categorize chickens, but there is a valid argument that it is technically true.