frypan/frying pan

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:30 AM -0800 2/11/04, FRITZ JUENGLING wrote:
>Still mystified, as we use one almost every day.  Are we talking
>about different things?
>Fritz

Are you talking about the kind of device that you plug in?  In the
old days, some apartments-- including one I lived in--and dorm rooms
allowed electric hot plates but had no stoves.  In particular, I was
living in the mid-1970s on the lower floor of a house in an area
zoned for one-family houses and the only legal kitchen was upstairs.
So we used an electric frying pan.  I remember them being especially
good for paella, but that was the last time I remember using one.  In
terms of NON-electric frying pans, I do call the black iron ones
"cast-iron skillets" or "frying pans".  The non-stick teflon ones are
frying pans, never skillets.

Larry

>
>>>>  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