# False friends: familiar names which mean something very different elsewhere **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2018, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121 "2018-03-24T18:07:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/161 "2018-03-26T02:27:36Z")
\*Mad \*has at least three meanings: 1. insane 2. angry 3. obsessed, or at least very fond of something. In America, saying “he’s mad” probably means he’s angry about something. In the UK it probably means he’s insane. Any of the three meanings are possible in either country, but these are the most likely. Saying that he’s mad about (something) probably has the third meaning in either country. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/162 "2018-03-26T04:43:35Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Jumper, I think, is well-known in the UK as meaning sweater in the US; we often adjust our language to accommodate. In South Africa, “sweater” is what we call a T-shirt. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/163 "2018-03-26T05:40:53Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Isn’t it associated with _marinate_ (like, with wine)? That’s what I’ve always assumed. 😕 > [@doreen](#): > > Sort of - in that “marinate” originally referred to pickling in salt water or sea water (which is probably something like _aqua marina_ in Latin) . Other marinades , meant to add flavor rather than preserve, came later. Marinara and marinate may have been derived from the same Latin word, but they are really not related in meaning. Marinara sauce does not involve marinating anything. > [@terentii](#): > > I know the origin of it: > > The dish was usually put together from whatever bits of food were left over when your average lady of the evening decided to call it a night. > > True story! 🆒 Sounds good, but there doesn’t seem to be any basis for that. The sauce was first referred to in the mid-Twentieth Century. According to [Wiki:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_alla_puttanesca) > [@](#): > > Annarita Cuomo asserted that sugo alla puttanesca was invented in the 1950s by Sandro Petti, co-owner of Rancio Fellone, a famous Ischian restaurant and nightspot.[5] According to Cuomo, Petti’s moment of inspiration came when—near closing one evening—Petti found a group of customers sitting at one of his tables. He was low on ingredients and so told them he didn’t have enough to make them a meal. They complained that it was late and they were hungry. “Facci una puttanata qualsiasi,” or “Make any kind of garbage,” they insisted.a[›] Petti had nothing more than four tomatoes, two olives and some capers—the basic ingredients for the sugo, “So I used them to make the sauce for the spaghetti,” Petti told Cuomo. Later, Petti included this dish on his menu as spaghetti alla puttanesca. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/164 "2018-03-26T05:43:56Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > In South Africa, “sweater” is what we call a T-shirt. Interestingly, in Panama a t-shirt is called a _sueter_ (pronounced “sweater,” more or less). In Chile, a t-shirt is called a _chomba_, which is derived from “jumper.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/165 "2018-03-26T06:17:34Z")
In Mexico, a quesadilla is a tortilla that’s filled with cheese and sometimes meat and then folded in half and grilled. This is also what a quesadilla generally means in the United States. But a few years back, I found out that a quesadilla is something entirely different in Central America. It’s a cake flavored with cheese. [Mexican quesadilla.](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mdZoe3i0oTI/TMCHDY2TmWI/AAAAAAAAAAw/yXSIWTFnT84/s400/FINAL_Recipe_Assigme_Cordes_1067587-1029310-1039999.jpg) [Salvadoran quesadilla.](http://www.sercano.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Quesadilla-de-arroz.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/166 "2018-03-26T06:36:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The “dinner” thing isn’t just a difference in terminology, but a genuine cultural difference. “Dinner” is the main meal of the day, no matter what time it occurs. In some areas of both Britain and the US (mostly rural), the midday meal is typically the largest, and so one has breakfast, dinner, and supper (or tea). In other areas (mostly urban), the evening meal is the largest, and so you have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Growing up, dinner meant midday meal whether was roast beef or a jam sandwich; tea meant evening meal (again, regardless of what it was). ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/167 "2018-03-26T09:11:48Z")
You can, of course, precede your [spotted dick](https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spotteddickandcustar_87835) with a main dish of [faggots](https://www.thespruce.com/classic-british-faggots-recipe-435283). ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/168 "2018-03-26T17:16:31Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > You can, of course, precede your [spotted dick](https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spotteddickandcustar_87835) with a main dish of [faggots](https://www.thespruce.com/classic-british-faggots-recipe-435283). My wife didn’t know what a faggot was until she met me. ---
**Author:** ![pdhenry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pdhenry/32/5561_2.png) [@pdhenry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pdhenry)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/169 "2018-03-26T20:28:25Z")
Yeah I once called ahead for a B&B reservation in England (this was back in the early 90’s). The landlady asked me what time I’d be arriving and I said, “Oh, around dinner time.” We arrived a little before six PM and the owners were on their way out more the evening since we didn’t show up when we said we would. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/170 "2018-03-26T21:35:34Z")
I may have missed it being mentioned already, and maybe it’s no longer current slang, but a friend of mine was in Australia and had just finished a large meal. He leaned back and declared “I’m stuffed” - and everyone did a double-take and then laughed, since they were pretty sure he wasn’t pregnant. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/171 "2018-03-26T21:40:11Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > How about a pint? > > 570 ml in the UK, 473 ml in the US, and just for good measure, in South Australia, ordering a pint would get you 425 ml, a measure that’s normally called a schooner in the rest of the country, but a South Australian schooner is only 285 ml, as is a Geordie Schooner in England; but not in Bristol where it’s a bleedin’ sherry glass, a Canadian Schooner could be 2 imperial pints, so 946 ml. The US apparently doesn’t care what size it is so long as their schooner has a stem on the glass, and now I don’t care either, I just want a damn beer. DO NOT start the discussion about beer glass sizes within the states of Australia. Violent, bloody civil wars have been fought for less passionate ideals. The following are just some of the names used for beer glasses in Australia Pot, pony, schooner, butcher, glass, pint, middy, small, half, and I could go on… Naturally, there is no commonality between names, sizes, and states. For example, a 10-once glass is a Pot in Melbourne, but a middy in Sydney (and sometimes a Pot also). A pot in Queensland is a 7-ounce glass. Best thing to do when visiting an interstate pub is to let your mate buy the first shout. If you’ve got no mates, well, - 'You’re not from ‘round here, are you… mate?’. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/172 "2018-03-26T21:40:54Z")
To my mother’s relatives, the three daily meals were breakfast, lunch, and supper. To my father’s relatives, the three daily meals were breakfast, supper, and dinner. They grew up less than 50 miles apart. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/173 "2018-03-26T21:41:17Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > I may have missed it being mentioned already, and maybe it’s no longer current slang, but a friend of mine was in Australia and had just finished a large meal. He leaned back and declared “I’m stuffed” - and everyone did a double-take and then laughed, since they were pretty sure he wasn’t pregnant. 🙂 Seems hardly surprising now it’s been mentioned, but no, I’ve never encountered that one! Useful. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/174 "2018-03-26T22:27:57Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > I may have missed it being mentioned already, and maybe it’s no longer current slang, but a friend of mine was in Australia and had just finished a large meal. He leaned back and declared “I’m stuffed” - and everyone did a double-take and then laughed, since they were pretty sure he wasn’t pregnant. 🙂 “Get stuffed!” means “Fuck you!” in the UK.\* I remember watching an episode of _ **That’s Life** _ in the '70s, in which they suggested that a particularly obnoxious letter writer “visit a taxidermist on his own behalf.” \*I think this expression was used in _ **Crocodile Dundee** _, too. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/175 "2018-03-26T22:49:20Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > I may have missed it being mentioned already, and maybe it’s no longer current slang, but a friend of mine was in Australia and had just finished a large meal. He leaned back and declared “I’m stuffed” - and everyone did a double-take and then laughed, since they were pretty sure he wasn’t pregnant. 🙂 I i can’t remember exactly how I phrased it, but when I lived out in Scotland, I remember telling one of my co-workers that I “got a ride from Ms. McLeod” when I was hitchhiking, and he snorted, saying “that’s how rumors get started. You got a lift.” Presumably, “getting a ride” meant sexually “riding” someone. Perhaps I phrased it somewhat differently, but the “ride” part is what was explained to me having a sexual meaning and that “lift” was preferred in the local idiom. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/176 "2018-03-26T23:29:11Z")
As a Western States girl transplanted to the East Coast, I’ve some observations I’ve gathered from my Central Jersey perch: -Gravy = marinara sauce. In my native lands gravy is either white and made from hamburger drippings or brown from poultry/game. Gravy goes on smashed taters or atop white bread. -Here, macaroni is a wide term that can mean a variety of pasta types. Mac means just the elbow-shaped kind out West. -Pie = pizza in NJ -Scone = nasty dry pastry. In Utah a scone is delicious deep fried Indian bread dripped with honey. What passes for a scone here was what grandma MacDougall called Irish soda bread. -Down the shore = to the beach in So Cal. -Rubber band = elastic. I recently flummoxed our office staff when I requested a box of elastics. -Worder = water in normal people-speak -Worder ice is a wonderful thing here and has no Western correlate. -Freeways don’t take the definite article; here it’s “take 95,” in SoCal it’s “The 95” -“Drauss,” as said by my NYC native wife, = drawers - Put out the light (also a wife-ism) = turn off the light. -Not for nuthin = thing wifey often says. I understand what it means, but I gave up on trying to apply grammatical rules to it. From a brief sojourn in Ohio: Cincinnati spaghetti is an unholy sauce, possibly made of river mud or some such; soda is called pop; grocery carts are called trolleys; and a paczki is a jelly-filled donut. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/177 "2018-03-26T23:36:45Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > To my mother’s relatives, the three daily meals were breakfast, lunch, and supper. > To my father’s relatives, the three daily meals were breakfast, supper, and dinner. > > They grew up less than 50 miles apart. I grew up eating breakfast, lunch, and supper. I read somewhere that “supper” is a Scots-Irish term that persists in places that had a 19th century influx of UK immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/178 "2018-03-26T23:45:03Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > I grew up eating breakfast, lunch, and supper. I read somewhere that “supper” is a Scots-Irish term that persists in places that had a 19th century influx of UK immigrants. My parents are Polish so we did breakfast (_śniadanie_), dinner (_obiad_), and supper (_kolacja_). So the middle meal would be the biggest one of the day, but typically, in our family, around 4 p.m. “Supper” would be a light meal at the end of the day, around 7 p.m., and typically something like a bowl of cereal, a sandwich, that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/179 "2018-03-27T00:44:46Z")
> [@Teuton](#): > > My wife didn’t know what a faggot was until she met me. I was introduced to the use of the word “faggot” in the sense of “firewood” when I was in high school. I was reading the Classics Illustrated version of _ **Taras Bulba** _, at the end of which the Poles burn the eponymous Cossack at the stake: **Pile faggots under him!** _But Taras Bulba did not notice or even look at the faggots, for he was thinking of his men._ Wait, what?!? :eek: :dubious: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121/180 "2018-03-27T07:56:52Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I had an Australian girlfriend. She was very surprised to hear on the radio that the governor was in a shagging contest. Around NC/SC shagging is a type of dance. Normally the music for shagging is “Beach music” but it has nothing to do with the Beach boys or california bands. > > [Beach music - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_music) “Shag” must be pretty well the most many-meaninged English word that I know. Besides its two applications cited or alluded-to above, it can also mean: mass of rough, matted hair or wool coarse variety of cloth / carpet type of strong tobacco shore-dwelling bird related to the cormorant to go away, or chase away and (I suspect that this use was slang restricted to the school which I attended, in England): situation / state of being idle / taking one’s ease – a note from the doctor excusing one from organised games / physical training, was a “shag slip”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-friends-familiar-names-which-mean-something-very-different-elsewhere/811121.md?page=10)