There is a local building center (lumber hardware, etc.) called the Breckenridge Building Center. When I tell someone from out of town that they can get their lumber at the BBC, there is a little confusion.
It might be a silicon frosting spatula - which I use to scrape bowls. But I’ve also seen a silicon bench scraper called a “spatula”.
They’re both “pavement” to me, but they’re not both the pavement, since if you said you were on the pavement I’d think of the roadway. However, if you said you were on a paved sidewalk that would be understood to be different from a dirt trail.
I think you’ve expressed your point poorly here. Green beans and black beans are highly related botanically, same species of plant and all. Green bell peppers and black peppercorns are not at all related botanically.
Your phrasing implies that the relatedness is similar, though greater, for beans. Of course, it did point out that “pepper” is two very different things in food, and rarely confused.
These are spatulas.
This is also A spatula.
Meant to add, although many pancake turners and silicon frosting spatulas look very different, these pancake/hamburger turners look very similar to these offset frosting spatulas ( except of course in size)
Okay, okay, I see now.
Well, from my point of view, these three are pretty much the same thing—one is a lot narrower, and another is slightly flared and is slotted, but it makes sense to me that they’re all called “spatulas,” which I’ve always called them (I don’t have “turner” in my idiolect/dialect). Mayyybe if the situation calls for specificity, one might specify “icing spreader” or “slotted spatula”:
(1) Amazon.com
(2) Amazon.com
(3) Amazon.com
This one to me is the only one that is so different in shape that, again in my view, it logically should have a different name:
But I call that one a “rubber spatula” or “silicone spatula” and I never have any problems with confustion. So, yes, in the end, I agree that this is a perfect example for the OP’s question!
also @acsenray –
I would call the ones at the first link spatulas, and the one at the second link a pancake turner.
Spatulas may have blades of varying shapes, and the blades may be made of rubber or silicon or some kinds of plastic. Some of them can be used in a hot pan, but a lot of them can’t.
Pancake turners also have some variation of shape. They usually have metal blades, and the blade is stiffer than the blade of spatulas. The handles also generally attach at a different angle, to help keep your hand off the hot pans they’re meant to be used in.
I googled “silicon scraper” and got a whole batch of things, some of which I’d call spatulas and some of which I wouldn’t.
I just asked 3 women (one at a time) what they turn their pancakes with. One said, “with a spatula” and looked at me like I was an idiot. One looked confused, and mentioned waiting till little bubbles form, then using a spatula. One explained that she doesn’t really cook, and definitely nothing as complicated as pancakes.
Why only women?
– pancakes don’t strike me as complicated; while it’s possible to make complicated ones, simple ones are about as basic as you can get. But in any case, pancakes aren’t the only thing I turn with a pancake turner; it might be eggs or burgers or potatoes or anything that’s cooking in a suitable pan.
It’s possible that ‘spatula’ versus ‘pancake turner’ is regional, in which case if you ask multiple people in a given region you might well get the same answer. I’ve shared houses with people from a whole batch of places; once I figured out the existence of the terminology problem I didn’t try to keep track of a pattern of who called a pancake turner a spatula and who didn’t.
Because I’m at work and other than me there are 3 women in the building. Why do you ask?
Sorry to be pedantic, but this is a minor pet peeve of mine. It’s “silicone”, not “silicon”. Silicone is a soft rubbery polymer. Silicon is a hard brittle semiconducting element.
I think the deciding factor is: are they all available at Spatula City?
Why is it a pancake turner? I use it for french toast, grilled cheese as well as pancakes. These names were something my step-mom was big into and I still call it a spatula.
What you guys call a pancake turner, i would call a fish slice.
Fascinating. This is what the US calls a fish spatula:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&q=fish+spatula
The odd asymmetrical shape and almost full-length slots are what mark it out for fish use. Non-slotted spatulas are not for fish.
In an unappetizing development a very similar tool is used by janitors to strain cigarette butts from sand-based ashtrays. I can never use a fish spatula for fish without thinking of scooping disgusting nasty butts out of stinky polluted sand. Oops. Yuckk!
Calling any manner of hand tool for picking up or turning food a “slice” is not US usage. AFAIK.
Although I (now) know you’re quoting UK usage. Are other food scooping or turning devices termed “slices” in UK parlance?
Yeah, I have never heard a spatula called a “pancake turner” before. Honestly it strikes me as something a little kid would come up with because they forgot what it was called. “Daddy, I want to watch you turn over the pancakes with the, uh… um, pancake turner!”
I don’t know. Why call it a spatula? Why is anything called anything?
While it might make more sense to just call it a turner – as one of those links did – that seems to be such a general term as to be almost meaningless. Turn the bed? turn table legs? turning vehicle tires? It’s a specific kind of turner, one that’s used to turn things cooking in a hot pan. But calling it a ‘pan turner’ sounds as if it’s meant to turn the pan, not its contents. There could be a whole lot of different things in a pan that might need turning; but the particular item that shares the name of the pan it’s used in is one of the common things that gets so turned, and maybe was one of the most common ones when and where the tool picked up that name. Pancakes, in one form or another, are one of the most basic foods there are.
The word spatula derives from the Latin word for a flat piece of wood or splint, a diminutive form of the Latin spatha, meaning ‘broadsword’, and hence can also refer to a tongue depressor. The words spade (digging tool) and spathe are similarly derived.
How about a generic term like food turner? I use mine for more then pancakes.