frypan/frying pan

FRITZ JUENGLING juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US
Wed Feb 11 19:30:54 UTC 2004


Still mystified, as we use one almost every day.  Are we talking about different things?
Fritz

>>> flanigan at OHIOU.EDU 02/11/04 09:46AM >>>
Both.  I was just joking about the electric kind, since I haven't seen one
for years.  But with or without "electric," I would always say "frying
pan"--never fry pan, or spider, or even skillet (unless maybe a clerk in a
store used the last term, in which case I'd follow suit to accommodate
her/him).

At 09:27 AM 2/11/2004 -0800, you wrote:
>I'm somewhat mystified by the question.  Maybe I have something else in
>mind from what you are thinking.  Are you talking about the words 'frying
>pan' or the object itself?  If the object, what do people use now instead?
>Fritz
>
> >>> flanigan at OHIOU.EDU 02/11/04 07:59AM >>>
>Gee, does anyone still use electric fry(ing) pans?  If I did, it'd be with
>-ing.
>
>At 07:43 AM 2/11/2004 -0800, you wrote:
> >Both my wife and I use 'electric skillet,' but neither of us uses
> >'skillet'  for the non-electric thingy.  That's a frying pan--oddly not a
> >skillet.  But if I did have to use skillet, it would be for the old,
> >black, cast iron ones, not the shiney, stainless steel or aluminum gadgets.
> >Fritz
> >
> > >>> faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU 02/11/04 06:49AM >>>
> >I have that same echo of "electric skillet" in my head, but can't
> >imagine where it came from, as "skillet" is one of those exotic terms
> >that I might have learned in the first dialectology unit in my intro
> >linguistics class.
> >
> >Dennis R. Preston said:
> > >Well I'm older than both of you (so you can imagine the incredible
> > >authority this must have). I began saying electric frying pan when
> > >the silly things were introduced, reduced it to electric frypan, and
> > >now use frypan exclusively to refer to the electric thing. A ringer
> > >in my usage may have been the fact that I had both skillet and frying
> > >pan before the electric goodies, and, if I recall correctly, had a
> > >slight preference for frying pan for the oldtime cast iron type and a
> > >slight preference for skillet for stainless steel, aluminum, and
> > >other instantiations of the genre. (No, didn't have no spiders.)
> > >Oddly, since the electric ones looked more like the latter, I never
> > >used electric skillet, although I understand it exists (or existed)
> > >and may have an echo of it in my head.
> > >
> > >dInIs (whose echoes in his head seem to increase)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >Sam Clements said:
> > >according to OED, notes that the electric implement's launch prompted the
> > >use of "frypan".
> > >
> > >  Is there a bifurcation like this in AmE? What is the status of "frying
> > pan"
> > >nowadays?
> > >
> > >I'm 59 and remember when "electric frypan" was a phrase in the 1960's  I
> > >haven't heard it since.  And I'd bet that most Americans would say the
> same.
> > >And, you needed that "electric" before the word "frypan."
> > >
> > >"Frying pan" is the only thing you hear in the last 25+ years.  IMHO.
> > >
> > >
> > >I'm a bit younger than you are, and I don't recall the electric
> > >version ever being called anything other than an "electric frying
> > >pan".
> >
> >--
> >=========================================================================
> =====
> >Alice
> Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
> >Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203)
> 865-6163 x258
> >New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203)
> >865-8963



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