I just saw an ad for Jack in the Box on the page I use to cheat on Wordle. It’s touting a $5 Combo meal with the rubric “Entree, 2 Sides & Drink For $5”. One might find this inoffensive, but I am extremely offended by the implication that a breakfast croissant, or a “Jr.-sized” sandwich (or, let’s face it, anything you can get at Jack in the Box) can legitimately be characterized as an “Entree.”
I know that prescriptivism comes in for a certain amount of pushback here, but C’MON!, you descriptivists out there! There has to be a line to be drawn! Can we at least agree on that fundamental point (and then band together to storm the offices of whoever thought this was a a legitimate characterization)?
First you’re going to have to decide exactly what an entree is. Common parlance is the main course, but if we’re being all prescriptivist about it, an entree comes before the main course.
That wording doesn’t offend me at all. Whatever the meal, the main event is the entrée—it’s the star of the show, even if it’s just a humble breakfast croissant. Now, if a bigger star rolls onto the plate—say, a double-decker burger stealing the spotlight—that would take top billing as the entrée.
I have heard of “new cuisine” places where a single tablespoon of something- with sauce artfully drizzled- was a full course. And of course a burger most certainly is an entree.
It’s now a hacky joke to kid about small portions at fancy restaurants. The reality is the fancy restaurants that give out tiny portions are doing it on tasting menus that have 10 or more courses. Some are small, some are bigger. Many are very rich. I just looked up yesterday’s menu for The French Laundry and there were 14 courses if you paid for the supplements.
This isn’t true in non-North-American English, let alone in French, where the word comes from. In any English-language country outside North America, an entree is a small item served before the main course. You’re complaining because Jack in the Box in their commercials uses a word in a difference sense than you do. Other people can complain because you don’t use use the word in the sense that they do in their dialect.
This was going to be my comment. Any so-called prescriptivist who insists that entrée means anything other than a “smaller dish served before the main course of a meal” is already swimming in the descriptivist lane. Welcome, @kaylasdad99! The water is just fine over here.
Well, there’s the proper way; then there’s the non-North-American way.
I figured the meaning of “entrée” probably shifts depending on the country. I’m just sharing how it’s commonly used where I’m from—North America. Even here, people might not always agree on it.
I don’t think it’s “standard”, usually it’s something special they advertise.
I’ll use two examples that I know of. One is Dairy Queen and another is Wendy’s.
Dairy Queen has had a “chicken strips basket” for as long as I can remember, which comes with a few good-sized chicken strips, fries, a piece of buttered toast sliced diagonally, and some gravy to dip it into. (They’ve had this since I was a kid, it’s nothing new.) Though funny enough, it never comes with a drink.
Dairy Queen does have a newer meal though, called the “Original Cheeseburger Meal Deal”, that comes with a drink, burger, fries, and some soft serve ice cream with a sauce of choice on it (strawberry, chocolate, etc.). The ice cream and fries are the two sides. You can upgrade the ice cream to a Blizzard for a couple dollars more.
Wendy’s has had a meal for a number of years which I’m pretty fond of because I think it’s a pretty good value (especially today after fast food prices have ballooned from inflation). You get a sandwich (crispy chicken or small bacon cheeseburger), 4 piece chicken nuggets (spicy or regular), fries, and a drink. It’s a pretty good amount of food for the price and you get a couple of choices with it. But they call it a “Biggie Bag” to differentiate it from the normal meals, which are usually a sandwich, fries, and drink.
So to sum up, that second side item will vary. In the examples I gave above, they might be toast, or ice cream, or chicken nuggets, and it’s certainly not a “standard” meal as those are usually still just a sandwich, fries, and drink.
As to the OP… Sandwiches have been called “entrees” on fast food menus for as long as I can remember. This isn’t a new phenomenon even if you’ve only recently noticed it. And given that the definition of an entree is that it’s the main part of a meal, the fast food places are using it correctly because compared to the fries (or whatever side) it is definitely the main part of the meal. You may find it too small to be considered something you’d call an entree, but regardless of your opinion they are using it accurately.
Sure, but the OP was specifically referring to Jack-in-the-Box, which is headquartered in North America, and has yet to go global, or even expanded into another country as far as I know. Hence we can safely assume the OP is in North America and should therefore abide by the North American common usage of the word “entree.”
