What do you call this?

Discussion of natural languages, or language in general.
hwhatting
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by hwhatting »

In German I'd call this a "Regal".

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Vijay »

Zaarin wrote:A curio cabinet, I believe. Though if you're storing food in a curio cabinet, well...

If this were in a kindergarten instead of a living room, however, it would be called a "cubby." :p
I'd be inclined to agree with you except that all the gaps in the picture are throwing me off.

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Pole, the
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Pole, the »

hwhatting wrote:In German I'd call this a "Regal".
Similarly in Polish, but I was just wondering what would happen if you wanted to refer to a bookcase/rack in English in a content-neutral way.
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alynnidalar
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by alynnidalar »

Just shelves to me. If somebody was putting books in it, I guess bookshelves or bookcase, but if they're putting food in it, then I think the proper term is why???
I generally forget to say, so if it's relevant and I don't mention it--I'm from Southern Michigan and speak Inland North American English. Yes, I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift; no, I don't have the cot-caught merger; and it is called pop.

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Travis B. »

I would go with shelving myself.
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Zaarin
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Zaarin »

Pole, the wrote:
hwhatting wrote:In German I'd call this a "Regal".
Similarly in Polish, but I was just wondering what would happen if you wanted to refer to a bookcase/rack in English in a content-neutral way.
The different-sized nooks is what led me to believe it was a curio cabinet rather than a bookshelf...
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Pole, the
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Pole, the »

Funny thing, this ad just randomly popped up for me on reddit:
Image

(Guess Google tracked me when I was looking for a good regał to paste here.)
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by linguoboy »

A dessert consisting of a sweet carbonated beverage poured over ice cream:

Image

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Vijay »

Too much sugar? :D

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by KathTheDragon »

An X float, where X is the carbonated beverage.

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Pole, the
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Pole, the »

Vijay wrote:Too much sugar? :D
+1
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Soap »

linguoboy wrote:A dessert consisting of a sweet carbonated beverage poured over ice cream:
My favorite drink of all time was

red raspberry ice cream + raspberry seltzer + red wine

I called it the Pink Cow because it put me to sleep just as surely as a Red Bull would keep me up. But nobody makes red raspberry ice cream anymore and the replacements just arent quite the same.

But yes, a float. Is there any other word?
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Zaarin »

KathTheDragon wrote:An X float, where X is the carbonated beverage.
+1 The carbonated beverage is usually root beer but could be Coke. Of course, cream makes me sick so I don't eat ice cream.
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by hwhatting »

linguoboy wrote:A dessert consisting of a sweet carbonated beverage poured over ice cream:
"It's the first time I see something like that so I don't have a name for it."

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Imralu »

linguoboy wrote:A dessert consisting of a sweet carbonated beverage poured over ice cream:
In Australia we call those spiders.
Not even joking ...
Pole, the wrote:Another question: how would you call this thing?
More: show
Image
I'm very bad with vocabulary for furniture ... I dunno. Shelves? Shelving? Thingy? We have a big thingy in the kitchen that I have no idea what to call ... a big cabinety, cupboardy thing with glass doors and shelves and an open desky surface and cupboards underneath ... anyway, if you're putting food in it, then I'd call it "where the food is" when speaking naturally. The big thingy in my kitchen, I'd probably just call "where the plates are kept" or whatever when I need to refer to it. If I was telling someone who doesn't live here where to get stuff, I'd say "thingy" and then describe where in the room it is ... most likely with gestures because the words "left" and "right" require conscious effort for me.

I kind of suck at language ... everyone thinks I'm good because I learn other languages quickly, but I kind of suck at language in other ways.
Pole, the wrote:It's not a box! Boxes are made of paper, are less durable and give significantly worse access to the items, if you want to put them in and take them out frequently!

And boxes made of wood are not boxes, but crates, and they are only ever used in Worms.

If what I just wrote sounds weird to you, that's basically how the last few posts here sound to me.
I don't know if the bit you wrote in white was only about the very last bit about Worms, or about the whole thing ... but anything box shaped is a box, regardless of what it's made of. I'm always amazed at the number of words Germans use for different kinds of boxes without any hypernym. I like hypernyms - they allow me to talk without looking for specific words.
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Zaarin
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Zaarin »

Imralu wrote:
linguoboy wrote:A dessert consisting of a sweet carbonated beverage poured over ice cream:
In Australia we call those spiders.
Not even joking ...
"Everything in Australia is trying to kill you" meme confirmed. O_O
Imralu wrote:most likely with gestures because the words "left" and "right" require conscious effort for me.
Me, too.
"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Vijay »


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linguoboy
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Re: What do you call this?

Post by linguoboy »

Vijay wrote:Potholders
Dammit, should have checked.

Alright, new question! What are these?

https://www.tomasoabestratingen.nl/wp-c ... eitjes.jpg

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Vlürch »

linguoboy wrote:Alright, new question! What are these?

https://www.tomasoabestratingen.nl/wp-c ... wv4ya0.jpg
That's a 404.

Also, the thing from the previous page... I'd just call it a closet. Everything large enough to find a hiding homosexual inside is a closet. Anything smaller than that is either a small closet or a box depending on whether it's easy to pick up and use for moving stuff from one place to another; if it can be used for that purpose (and especially if it's meant to be used for that purpose), then it's a box, but otherwise they're all closets to me.

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Axiem »

linguoboy wrote:Alright, new question! What are these?

Image
I don't think the site likes external image embedding, but when I click the link, it works.

Anyways, I'd call those "stones" that the person is embedding in the ground.

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by hwhatting »

I also get the 404, but when I search for the terms in the link, what I get looks what I'd call broadly Pflastersteine ("cobblestones") and specifically Katzenköpfe, lit. "cat heads".

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Vijay »

How come all of you can see linguoboy's post but I can't anymore?

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by linguoboy »

Vijay wrote:How come all of you can see linguoboy's post but I can't anymore?
I've gone in twice and edited the URL. It works for a time and then stops working again.

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Vijay »

Oh, never mind, you added that to your post! I thought they were talking about your earlier post with the potholders. I was like why is everybody talking about stones all of a sudden?? :o

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Re: What do you call this?

Post by Axiem »

To be fair, "pot" and "stone" are morphemes I would consider to easily be in a sentence together...

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