"barbecue pit"

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Mon Aug 11 16:02:26 UTC 2008


Isn't the issue here related to a dialect matter that we have discussed within the past year or two?  In the South and Southwest (principally) the VERB "barbecue" means 'cook large pieces of meat slowly--for several hours--over coals in a pit or in a brick structure above the ground'. In the North (principally) "barbecue" means 'cook hamburgers or wieners for a few minutes on a portable metal charcoal or gas griller', which could be metaphorically called a "pit" in deference to the TRUE meaning of "barbecue."

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:04:03 -0400
>From: Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: "barbecue pit"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      "barbecue pit"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The second sentence of the appended article reads: "An argument over
>whether a third guest should stay in the house got so heated that the
>woman picked up the barbecue pit and hit the man over the head with
>it, police said." The friend who sent it to me wrote:
>
>-----
> File under, "You keep using that word...I do not think it means what
>you think it means."  I saw the headline, and I wondered how you could
>do that.
>-----
>
>So did I. To me, a pit is a basically a hole in the ground, possibly
>lined with bricks and fitted with assorted useful accessories for
>cooking, but still a hole.
>
>But this term seems to have been lexicalized, e.g.,
>
>http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/bbqgrill.pdf [from the Cooperative
>Extension Service of Mississippi State University]:
>MULTIPLE-SECTION PORTABLE BARBECUE PIT
>Barbecuing chickens for large groups is fairly easy when a
>multiple-section portable barbecue pit is used. It is prefabricated in
>sections, permitting fast and easy assembly and disassembly. The unit
>is easily transported and stored. Any number of eight-foot long
>sections can be interconnected, depending on the number of chickens to
>be barbecued.
>
>And the readers commenting on the website of the local newspaper that
>originated the story
>(http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080807/NEWS01/808070337
>, "Serving Alexandria, Pineville, and Central Louisiana") don't seem
>to find anything unusual in the usage.
>
>================
>
>http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080807/D92DOO2O1.html
>
>Two arrested after using barbecue pit as a weapon
>Aug 7, 7:54 PM (ET)
>
>ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) - A man and a woman found a new use for a
>barbecue pit - one that landed them in jail. An argument over whether
>a third guest should stay in the house got so heated that the woman
>picked up the barbecue pit and hit the man over the head with it,
>police said.
>
>The man picked up the barbecue pit and returned the favor and hit the
>woman in the head with it, police reported. The woman then told police
>that she picked up the barbecue pit and hit the back window of the
>man's car with it.
>
>Police admit that the whole situation was confusing, but after medics
>treated the man and the woman, they were handcuffed, read their rights
>and taken to jail.
>
>The man was booked on a charge of aggravated battery and the woman was
>booked with aggravated battery and simple criminal damage to property
>valued less than $500.
>
>==============
>
>
>--
>Mark Mandel
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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