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Collective nouns for food | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 1 of 14 12 September 2013 at 9:30pm | IP Logged |
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I looked at my shopping receipt this morning and noticed the following interesting use of collective nouns:
1 crown of broccoli (those lucky little flowers are promoted to a May Day royal garland!) 1 head of cabbage (this always conjures up gruesome images of testing a sharpened guillotine during the French revolution and peasants in revolt...probably against that smug broccoli!!) This started me thinking a bit more about what other peculiar food quantifiers are lying in wait somewhere out there for newcomers to English or any other second language: a bushel of wheat, a peck of pickled peppers, a spear of asparagus, a sprig of parsley, or even a hand of bananas perhaps. Can you think of any other amusing collective nouns for food in your language(s)? Edited by Teango on 12 September 2013 at 9:36pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5226 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 2 of 14 12 September 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged |
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Sort of like the English counterpart to the infamous Mandarin classifiers.
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| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 14 12 September 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged |
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An ear of wheat.
(to go with the head of cabbage) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5226 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 4 of 14 12 September 2013 at 11:21pm | IP Logged |
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A torso of fennel.
All right, I made that one up. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 5 of 14 13 September 2013 at 12:21am | IP Logged |
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And of course potatoes have eyes in English (as well as Russian: "глазки")! @o@
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 6 of 14 13 September 2013 at 12:36am | IP Logged |
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I always loved the expression "a school of fish".
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| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 14 13 September 2013 at 12:43am | IP Logged |
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Some measures of food appear to be quite violent:
a pinch of salt a twist of lemon a hit of caffeine 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4324 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 8 of 14 13 September 2013 at 2:44am | IP Logged |
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In Spanish, a garlic clove is a "diente de ajo" ("tooth of garlic"). And the entire bulb in Spanish and English is a head of garlic ("cabeza de ajo")
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