frypan/frying pan

[Dave Wilton]

Ditto for me. "Skillets" are cast iron.

But I have noticed that "skillet" gets a lot of use on restaurant menus, perhaps
to avoid the unhealthy association with "fried" food.


Quoting Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>:

> 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
>
>


--
Dave Wilton
dave at wilton.net
http://www.wilton.net/dave.htm