frypan/frying pan

[Beverly Flanigan]

That reminds me: I think I also use "skillet" with "cast-iron"; otherwise
it's frying pan.

At 03:06 PM 2/11/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>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