# Entree

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 14, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988 "2007-12-14T13:05:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xcheopis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xcheopis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xcheopis)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988/61 "2007-12-19T19:20:40Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]  
I think it’s pretty obvious that by North America I meant Anglophone North America. I didn’t think I had to say that.

As for current usage, I don’t think a cite from 1949 is necessarily that useful, especially since we’d already proven it wrong before it was offered.  
[/QUOTE]

I think it’s pretty obvious that I was responding to **Askance**. I didn’t think I had to say that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988/62 "2007-12-19T19:59:11Z")

</div>

:smack:

Wait, let me wipe the egg off my face first…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xcheopis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xcheopis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xcheopis)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988/63 "2007-12-19T21:35:55Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]  
:smack:

Wait, let me wipe the egg off my face first…  
[/QUOTE]

And what would you like for your entrée? 😛

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988/64 "2007-12-19T23:23:13Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]  
I think it’s pretty obvious that by North America I meant Anglophone North America. I didn’t think I had to say that.  
[/QUOTE]  
I was just giving you a way to get to your claimed total of 330m native English speakers in North America, as I could only get up to about 233 with the US and Canada. So maybe it was a typo?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988/65 "2007-12-20T01:36:43Z")

</div>

I gave a cite that gave me 330 million people in the US and Canada, most of whom are presumably native; but the point is not that they’re native speakers, but that they use “entree” to mean “main course” regardless of when they learned English, because that’s how they get the right food at restaurants.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988/66 "2007-12-22T22:26:54Z")

</div>

Another point from my good wife: there was no meat rationing in the US during WW1, although there were voluntary x-less days.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entree/429988.md?page=3)