The word "crudités"

Know the word and think it’s fairly common. It’s also misused. I remember a company dinner at a hotel. On the menu was listed “tossed salad with crudites”. No shit?

Yeah, well, you’re a chef guy.

Why? Really- not snarky at all, I promise. Why do you assume that if you know it you must be a foodie, so if you’re not a foodie you must not know it? It seems a bit circular. I remember reading about canapes in Nancy Drew books as a kid- with one of father’s cocktail parties or something, long before I was interested in being a foodie.

I don’t know about the SAT, I but I woudn’t be surprised to see high school students using it is a written assignment, or being expected to understand it if presented to them.

I voted know it/common. Ottawa, Ont.

I worked in the kitchen biz for a time as well, but some of the decidedly unpretentious places had it on the menu.

California. Never heard it before monstro’s thread.

That’s definitely the sort of word I think crudités is. It may not be English, but I don’t think it’s any weirder than filet mignon, or cappuccino.

I’m not a foodie “insider”. I live on cereal and Lean Cuisines, fer cryin’ out loud.

Well, there you go. Cocktail parties. I’ve never been to one and my parents didn’t throw them. Going to a cocktail party does not make you a “foodie”, of course, but it means you’ve been exposed to the elements of a cocktail party. Like canapes.

I admit I’m not worldly. And I have read the word “canapes” before. But actually knowing what they are? No. I think that requires exposure to a certain environment.

I took AP English classes throughout high school. The word never came up, and I’m struggling to imagine in what capacity it would.

No- You misread me- I don’t go to cocktail parties- I read about them in a popular childrens’ book series called Nancy Drew (the girl detective- sorry if you didn’t know what they were) as a child. My parents are immigrants and barely had any English and we were pretty poor- no cocktail parties for me!

I didn’t say every AP class would teach it- just I wouldn’t be surprised if it came up in one.

He didn’t say he went to cocktail parties; he said he read about them in a book. I have never been to a cocktail party in my life - I am completely baffled by your insistence that knowledge of these words requires a “certain environment”.

She. had I been a he it would have been the Hardy Boys.

:smiley:

As I remember, I first ran into it at college at Denver, where a platter was always part of the food provided at social gatherings.

I’m from California. I’ve heard the word (mostly seen it in books) and I thought I knew what it meant (little finger-sized hors-d’oeuvres type things), but after reading the referenced thread apparently I was wrong and it’s a vegetable tray.

I find it more odd that multiple people are saying they’ve never been to a cocktail party.

I’ve never been to a cocktail party. But then again, I hate cocktails (I don’t drink much), I don’t like “mingling” (I’m an introvert–if I go to a party at all you’ll find me off in a corner having a deep conversation, probably about gaming, with one or two people), and I’m not fond of dressing up. So I’d be pretty useless at a party where the whole purpose is to drink, mingle, and dress up. :slight_smile:

Guess you’re just one of those elitists whose diet extends beyond grits & possum!

I wouldn’t be surprised to find it on there, no. And in my rural Kentucky high school, pretty much everybody would have gotten it right, considering it was a vocabulary word in a required middle-school semester of home ec.

Whoops! Apologies.

Growing up, my family was more of the potluck/hot-dish-to-pass crowd.

As an adult, my social group very casual and I don’t have the sort of job that requires fancy socializing.

From French-Canadian stock, came to Central Pennsyltucky around 7 yrs old.

I voted, I know it, I know what it means but I don’t think it’s a common word.

I didn’t realize it wasn’t a common word until moved to the States. It was a common word in our household, but not beyond. I just assumed it was one of those Canadian regularities that did not translate (serviette, zed, Kraft Dinner, freezies). Once I moved to the big city, I found others who knew what the word meant and could use it freely, lol.

How is it pronounced?

crew-DEE-tay?

Davenport! Davenport! Right? :slight_smile:

I love Canadian lingo.