I’ve read it, heard it in conversations, and heard it in the media (cooking shows, etc.) often enough, but I’m a cookbook junkie and I like cooking shows. On this board, it’s probably not an “outside the norm” word. To the average Joe at the hardware store? Probably uncommon. (But Average Joe probably has more specific words than I do for “that little gadget in the [mechanical item] that makes it go [mechanical action].”
41, female, born and raised in Georgia, USA. (And never attended a cocktail party until I was in my mid-thirties.)
::shrug:: I suppose that’s another vagary of the English language. When I say I don’t do fancy socializing, I mean my friends and I hardly ever have official ‘parties’ of any kind. We just hang out.
That’s a good point. The posters here are much smarter than the general public. I would bet my life that 9 out 10 random people off the street would not know what a
“crudites” is.
I think it’s interesting that over 3/4 of the responses, so far, indicate that they know the word. We may bicker over how to define “common” but it’s certainly commonplace, even if not regularly used- is that a fair statement?
No, because the last choices cannot/do not touch on the responders touch on the commonness of the word. That would be over interpreting the data. People can recognize that they themselves do not know words that turn out to be common after all. It’s happened to me more than once.
ETA: Class of people? Children of immigrants who spoke little English and who grew up poor? OK…
Class was the wrong word to use. I should have said the word is commonplace among those who frequent cocktail parties, have discretionary income, like to cook/entertain, are well-read. That sort of thing.
The average, blue collar Joe would have no idea what the word means.
You are right. But I think it’s fair to say if they didn’t know what it meant and/or had never heard of the word, they would agree it’s not a common word.
Illinois. I’ve heard it but have no idea what it is. In fact, were it not for this thread I wouldn’t have even known it was food-related (I thought it was something fabric-related, like taffetta or something).
I have heard and read the word before and I knew it had to do with some sort of appetizer, but I never really knew it meant “vegetable tray”. I watch the Food Network and my parents used to throw lots of cocktail parties, but I never heard the term from either of those sources, at least not in a way that would tip me off to the definition. I’m from West Virginia.
Now I’m curious; I bet you can find the word in the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and/or Joy of Cooking, both of which are fairly standard comprehensive cookbooks of the sort that many people are given as gifts when setting up housekeeping on their own, getting married, etc.
No I disagree. If I’ve never heard of a word I would know it wasn’t common to me, but that I couldn’t generalize until I knew more.
When I hear words I don’t know my reaction is to assume it was me that didn’t know it, and everyone else probably did! Poor self image has been great for vocab, I guess.
I suppose that works both ways, though. If I have heard/made use of a word, I shouldn’t necessarily generalize that it’s common. Hence my interest in this thread.
Exactly- but this comment was in reference to the poll questions. Those who voted they’ve heard of the word can comment on it’s how common they perceive it to be.
