Yes, that sounds weak to me too. I can draw dividing lines, but there will always be exceptions to any line I draw because there’s just so much variety to food. I mean, I could say that soup is anything with a soupy consistency, but neither grits nor oatmeal nor cream of wheat are soups despite being very soupy. I could say it’s the presence of grains, but wild rice soup exists (and is very tasty).
At this point I’m really inclined to say that cereal isn’t soup because it just isn’t, and you know which is which when you see it. The English lexicon does not semantically group cereals with soups, just as pancakes are not the same as a layer cake nor are tacos the same as sandwiches.
The definitions say “typically” or “especially” with meat or vegetables. Which in turn implies that there might be atypical soups which lack those ingredients.
It was just a thought I had (or re-had, to be exact). When I was a young kid some thirty-odd years ago I distinctly recall drawing a parallel between the Alpha-Bits cereal I had for breakfast and the Campbell’s Alphabet Soup my mother served me for lunch, though I didn’t really give it all that much thought, being 5 or so at the time. I thought about it this morning for some reason, and did the math on it, even though it’s been at least a solid decade since I’ve actually eaten breakfast cereal, and decided to put it up for discussion.
Are mashed potatoes “soup”? Does it matter if you add gravy?
I’m stuck on “a liquid dish” or “a liquid food”. Cereal isn’t liquid. The milk is liquid, but milk is not a soup. At best, breakfast cereal is a grain-based dish with a cold milk sauce.
