[Ads-l] (dessert) bar

[Barretts Mail]

I don’t find “bar” as in the dessert kind in the OED, dictionary.com, Wiktionary, Wikipedia or Merriam-Webster.

Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dessert_bar) and Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert_bar) do have “dessert bar” and the Wikipedia article does say they are often called “bars” or “squares”. The problem with calling them “dessert bars” of course is that a dessert bar is also a station with desserts (but see citation at end).

Wikipedia says that a bar has the texture of cake or is softer than a typical cookie. The most common sorts are probably the lemon bar and the fig bar, but there are many other types such as the noteworthy Nanaimo bar. 

The OED, dictionary.com, and Merriam-Webster give definitions for bar-shaped objects, but it seems wrong to call a bar-shaped cookie or a bar-shaped cake a bar simply on account of the shape. But then there are granola bars and health bars, which seems to throw the texture part of the definition out the window. Despite the danger of opening a Pandora’s box of bars, perhaps it can be said that there are a (dessert) bar and a (healthy with nuts) bar. 

cf
35 Dessert Bar Recipes to Satisfy Your Cravings
https://www.scrambledchefs.com/35-dessert-bar-recipes-to-satisfy-your-cravings/

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org