I chose “know it, don’t think it’s common.” If I were speaking to my father or other foodies, I might say crudites, but usually I just say “veggies.”
Raised in RI (though I think that’s less of a factor than having well-educated, foodie parents).
Am a UK guy and know it from maybe 20 years ago in the UK which was about the time I left Europe and ever since have seen it everywhere in Asia, NZ, Japan and my adopted homeland of Philippines. I have heard it pronounced differently, but figured it was commonplace and wouldn’t be anymore difficult to translate as French Fries and Freedom Fries.
I thought that if I stayed out of the Pit I wouldn’t have to be subjected to this kind of nastiness. What is the rule for this forum?
Know it and think it’s a common, but not an everyday word.
Since we’re talking words, I was rather dismayed to find out that the airlines have now dumbed down “turbulence” to “rough air” in their safety speech.
Ah, it didn’t even occur to me that “chevre” was the word they were going for. For some reason, my mind went straight to “trivet.”
Nah, I was talking about college department events, the semi-formal dance, and such. Small campus, everyone knew everyone, and certainly everyone knew everyone in your own major/department. I’m not saying that everyone goes out and has the experience of cocktail parties post-college – it wouldn’t surprise me if it weren’t that common, as I pretty much don’t, either. I suspect that most adults don’t throw privately hosted cocktail-only parties, aside from, say, high society see-and-be-seen fundraiser parties. But I’d be surprised if a lot of people said that their college departments never had organized parties, nor did the college ever sponsor semi-formal dances or whatnot.
Whether or not you call it a cocktail party prior to the ball/dance/awards ceremony, or a cocktail reception, or cocktail hour, I think is splitting hairs. You stand around wearing a suit-and-tie or a nice dress and heels, sipping wine and nibbling cheese while chatting (with your profs and fellow students or whomever the party is for), it’s a cocktail party.
Anyway, this is sort of a silly tangent. I was just pointing out that it’s likely more people have attended a cocktail party than they think.
I’ve only read the word so I’m not even sure how it’s pronounced. I know what it means though I doubt most people in my part of Memphis do. We’d just call it a veggie tray.
I am skeptical of the accuracy of your history lesson. Cite?
Aside from that, she’s said it already, but you have no way of knowing what she knows unless she tells you. She has told you that it is a commonly understood word among the people she talks to. In fact, I’d say the poll is very revealing, because regardless of the perception of whether the word is common or not, the overwhelming majority of respondents know what the word means. Dopers skew strongly towards being intelligent and educated; but so do professional office settings, which was the context of the situation in the other thread; and so do the people I tend to spend time with, working, playing, or whatever.
It is not, in any way, unreasonable to believe that people I spend time with, people as, or more, intelligent than me, are familiar with this word. Using it does not make me a snob. Using it does not mean I’m going out of my way to ensure that my audience can’t understand me. If someone needs me to clarify, I will, and I won’t think too much of that either, as there are words that I learned in adulthood, too. It’s just not that big a deal, and not something worthy of so much angst and offense.
You realize that no one has any control over what happens in someone else’s mind, right?
Another voice from Western NY (Now) speaking up. I’d be more likely to use the term veggie tray but wouldn’t think crudites were in any way exceptional.
My experience is that I’ve found it far easier to give offense by trying to tailor my words to my audience than by simply letting things all hang out. If I’m visibly taking the time to concoct circumlocutions for what I wish to convey, the effect seems to be to my audience that I have decided that they are too ignorant, crude, or inferior to understand what I would normally say.
I’m with Martin. I’ve heard of the word, but have never heard anyone say it, nor have I really been bothered enough to look up the meaning. I wouldn’t even know how to pronounce it, and if I did use it in my circle of friends, they’d be all like, “Say wha’?” Needless to say, I don’t consider it a common word at all. Born in Pennsylvania, but have lived in Arizona for a couple of decades, if it matters.
How is saying “veggie tray” a circumlocution or talking down to people? Who would be offended if you called a tray of vegetables a “tray of vegetables?”
I have never heard anyone say it. I am a librarian and immersed in a world of information all day, so IMHO if it were as common a word as some people think it is, I would have heard it. I might have heard it and not realized what I was hearing, since when I see it I think crud-ite, meaning a follower of crud, of course. It’s an ugly word for vegetable tray.
Pacific Northwest - southern end of the Willamette Valley.
Hey stop throwing that at my face, ok? I didnt choose it. I dont care what you fundies think, I didnt choose to grow like that, I cant suddenly decide to go the other way. It’s in my genes. I was born like that. And I refuse to spend the rest of my life fighting who I am.
Well put.
Well, I know what a carafe is. It’s an animal with a long neck and a prehensile tongue that eats leaves from high branches and posts on the Dope.
Right? 
I was responding to BigT’s assertion that it is always better to tailor one’s vocabulary to one’s audience. I was offering a counter to his universal claim. It had nothing to do with crudites vs. veggie tray, specifically. For that matter, I’d already said that in this case I’m more likely to use veggie tray than crudites.
As food for thought, though - you might want to consider that so far, every person I’ve noticed who identified as coming from my region, Western/Upstate NY, views the word crudites as common. There’s no reason for me to prefer one term over the other in day-to-day speech.
Or do you make sure to excise all regionalisms from your speech?
Cool your jets, you two — and everyone else. This shouldn’t have to end up in the pit; surely vocabulary can be discussed without insults.
Be that as it may, the next time anyone comes out with this kind of insulting talk, there will be official warnings.
Ellen Cherry
IMHO Moderator
I do if I recognize what I am about to say is a regionalism and could be misunderstood. Saves a lot of explaining. I didn’t even know crudites was a regionalism since I’ve only seen the word in print and have never actually heard anyone say the word. I didn’t even know it was a common word anywhere.
Sure you do. Ever met a salesman/woman? Ever gone to a job interview? People try to control what others think about them all the time. Control’s not a good word for what they actually get - influence is a much better word for what actually happens.
Turn that around, please: I’ve lived here for the past 20 years, and grew up in another region (New England) that seems from this poll to also view the word as common. Why wouldn’t I assume that everyone knows the word? Especially since we can find repeated claims just in this thread that the word is used in national television programming.
What clue would I have had, prior to this thread, that it was a regionalism?
Should I poll people here on the Dope for what words are and are not regionalisms? Does its French origin give me sufficient reason to assume it’s only a regionalism? Should I stop using entrée, blanch, and sauté as well, since they’re also French words and therefore likely to be regionalisms, too?