I don't think that means what you think that means.
By Jekca
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
Centralia, Missouri
September 26, 2015 11:42am CST
"I don't think that means what you think that means," from the Princess Bride.
I love the many nationalities I get to talk to here. We get a good global perspective on things. Every now and then someone uses a word and I'm like....wait what? I'm not shy, I will just ask, ok, what does X mean.
I had that happen in a book the other day. The character was eating something called a butter-cream. She refused to eat ones out of tin that was mixed with the digestible. I am assuming she meant a cookie? (sweet baked treat, not a cracker. Which is another word that I think changes depending on where you are at.). Not really sure if I even have any of that right, and I have absolutely no idea what a digestible is. (so yes, if you do know, please share!)
Also, I bet there are many more examples of the oddities in all of our languages. What else have you see on or around, or just want to ask, what does that actually mean?
11 people like this
10 responses
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
26 Sep 15
They are both biscuits, to the British, but Cookies to you probably, the butter cream is a plain biscuit with a butter cream filling in the middle... Like orios, a digestive is made with oats and other things, and sometimes, if biscuits are kept in the same tin, occasionally one can become tainted with the flavour of the other...
I hope this helps
4 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
26 Sep 15
ok that totally does help. I would never have though that a tasty treat might be called after the digestion process with adding oats and such. I can see the flavors mingling, but that wouldn't bother me tons.
3 people like this
@sueznewz2 (10409)
• Alicante, Spain
26 Sep 15
@Jessicalynnt aahhh well ..I would be the same as the Character in the book... it would bother me, 
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
@sueznewz2 I guess I say it wouldnt bother me, but I'd have to try them both ways to be sure. Cookies, I mean biscuits in a tin aren't really a thing here, not often. There are a few that come that way, but I am not a big fan of store bought like that anyways. I'd rather just go make a batch of chocolate chip cookies
1 person likes this
@valmnz (17095)
• New Zealand
26 Sep 15
One of the things that amuses me most is the Americans use of the word biscuit. Our biscuits are what you call cookies. I see @sueznewz2 has shown you what a butter cream biscuit looks like below.
4 people like this
@valmnz (17095)
• New Zealand
26 Sep 15
@Jessicalynnt we didn't used to, but so many Americanisms are creeping in. We call the more substantial ones cookies sometimes, the sort that are less commercially produced and more like home baking. Does that make any sense?
3 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
26 Sep 15
@valmnz like grandma's homemade cookies. yeah that does.
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@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
26 Sep 15
Ok so if a "biscuit" for you is what I call a cookie. Do you have something you call a cookie?
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
27 Sep 15
I am fairly bi-lingual because I am married to a Brit, though I think I was well-versed in British English before I met him. I find it amazing that people get all wound up over words. The US is a huge country and even we don't agree on what things are called. When I was growing up, carbonated drinks were called tonic, now we mostly say soda. U remember my childhood friend from Scotland proclaiming that tonic was something for your hair. In other parts of the US they say pop, and in some places, all fizzy drinks are called cokes, no matter what flavor they are. But it's natural that groups of people have regional names for things that differ. The same is true anywhere.
4 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
The pop, soda, carbonated beverage, tonic etc war is one I know very personally. I did not grow up in the south. Where I come from if you want a Coke, you ask for a Coke. If you wanted a sprite you asked for that. Down here, you ask for a Coke they are going to ask you what type. My first thoughts were...I said a Coke. If I wanted an orange soda, I would have ordered that to begin with! Coke is totally the name for every soda....it's still odd to me.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
28 Sep 15
@vandana7 Yeah, I actually think of a medicine when I think of a tonic.
@kevin1877uk (36987)
•
26 Sep 15
I know with having an America partner for over two years the thing you would say or I would say that meant the say but in different words.Like Val valmnz is saying biscuit is a cookie over there, what you call candy we call sweets. I do find it interesting the differences.
3 people like this
@kevin1877uk (36987)
•
27 Sep 15
@Jessicalynnt No they aren't the same, UK chip are more like fries you get a fast food but much better. And fish we call fish, fish, pretty much the same on that one.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
@kevin1877uk lol, ok that made me giggle. fish are pretty much fish.
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@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
so do you use candy for anything then? And yes, the word differences are really neat to look into. Like fish and chips. My chips and UK chips I don't think are the same thing at all.
2 people like this
@wetnosedogs (1533)
• United States
27 Sep 15
I would say chocolate cookie. but I could be wrong. I just think in chocolate terms. 
3 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
thinking in terms of chocolate is never a bad idea!
2 people like this
@Drosophila (16568)
• Ireland
27 Sep 15
The biggest cultural shock was when I went to USA. You use all different words on a menu. I could understand all the words but not actually know what it was, example is zucchini = courgette, eggplant = aubergine. I literately drove the girl at California Pizza Kitchen nuts with my inane questions.
3 people like this
@Drosophila (16568)
• Ireland
27 Sep 15
@Jessicalynnt i just learnt the kanji for Ramen & carried that with me. very useful. :D
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
28 Sep 15
@Drosophila especially since Ramen over there is AMAZING.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
I ran into that in Japan, but worse as I can't read Kanji, it's all squgiggles to me. Very rarely was there an English menu, sometimes i got lucky with photos. I pointed a lot, and actually sometimes had no idea what I was getting until it appeared on my plate,
2 people like this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
27 Sep 15
I would think a butter cream is a chocolate. That remind me I want to order chocolates from Sees.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45490)
• United States
27 Sep 15
@Jessicalynnt I know what you mean, I was just looking at them in the catalog.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
@AbbyGreenhill those are hard to find, unless you order, and so good.
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
Sees is pretty good. I'm crazing those chocolate honeycomb thingies now.
@Sheilamarie78 (2586)
• Canada
12 Nov 15
I'm thinking it's one of those digestive biscuits that is made with arrowroot. I could be wrong.
1 person likes this
@Freelanzer (10782)
• Canada
26 Sep 15
It is indeed interesting to hear how different people use different words but they can also cause a lot of misunderstanding at times.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Sep 15
It certainly can, which just means we need to keep open lines of discussion! Mwhahaha.
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@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
11 Nov 15
The image that susan, @sueznewz2 provided earlier looks to me like the name brand cookies known over here as, Lorna Doone, or at least I think that's the name of them. A fancier type cookie and I can see where it would be known as a biscuit elsewhere.
Communication or the lack thereof can cause problems now only between people of other countries or cultures, but also between friends or people in the same city. We are not used to asking people what they are talking about our what they mean and sometimes I wonder whether we should do that more.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
11 Nov 15
I dont mind asking, I had no idea what a digestible was!
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38865)
• Midland, Michigan
11 Nov 15
@Jessicalynnt You ask here, but do you think to ask those you're with when they say something to you, or even when you say something or tell someone something. Do you ask them what you said to see if they understood you correctly or\ not. The obvious things we don't know, I think the majority would ask, but it's the things that seem common or familiar that I think we overlook and assume we or the other knows what is being talked about.
