Oh, and during our house search, seeing all these tract homes with redone kitchens with "butler's pantries" just cracked me up.

I long for a butler's pantry, a maid's room, the cook's larder, a package room, and all the other functional spaces that big old houses had - even though I am the butler, the maid, the cook, and the packager....

So much clutter could be dealt with, and so much time saved, if we had places to do the things we do without having to reorganize the area every time we switched jobs.

So I don't object to the names, because they can define what the places are designed for, even though the butler's pantry I need does not actually require space for six sets of china for 24, and a 12-piece silver serving service, and ten tureens in varying sizes, and flat silver (including shrimp forks and ice cream spoons...) and seven different sizes and shapes of crystal for each of those 24 settings...

Our outhouse (which we still have) was always called the privy...

Property that was behind the pond was always called "the back"

Father always called the garage the barn as that's where they put the car when he was growing up. Of course he always said "fil-em" instead of film and "el-em" instead of elm. He was a child of immigrants and grew up speaking Polish and had to teach his parents English as he learned it himself. My old secretary also had some pronunciations that cracked me up....nip it in the "butt"....and she used to enjoy her "oakmeal" every morning...nearly fell over when she said she liked it because it had so much fiber!

Great thread! Here are a couple more from growing up in Kansas, living in Virginia and NE, and visiting in-laws in the UK.

Airing cupboard: what my in-laws called the closet in the bathroom that held the water heater and thus was used to hang clothes to dry. BTW, every night they religiously turned off the water heater, so the first person to take a bath in the morning (they did not believe in showers) only got tepid water.

Pronouncing valance as "valence."

Screened-in porch to separate it from one with jalouised windows. DH and I still call our screened porch "screened-in."

As others have mentioned, "sleeping porch" for sleeping in the hot summer. Usually off a second floor room, usually a bedroom.

Finally, "keeping room" is not a phrase I'd heard people use in conversation until reading posts in the Kitchen forum.

Then we have Candice Olsen and the bulkhead! I have never heard this word used in relationship to a house, only a ship. Now of course, we all know it's mainly used in Canada when referring to the soffit. ;o)

Then we have Candice Olsen and the bulkhead! I have never heard this word used in relationship to a house, only a ship. Now of course, we all know it's mainly used in Canada when referring to the soffit. ;o)

Here bulkhead is also used to describe a certain type of outside entry into the cellar or basement.

>I suspect that was something popular because of that tv show The Golden Girls.

Maybe, but after seeing the references here to having heard that term for thirty years I cast my failing memory back that far and it seems to me that the first people I heard use it were all transplants from the midwest. It was (is, I think) more common on the west coast than anywhere in SE FL. I certainly never heard anyone call anything a lanai when I was growing up in Miami, and my parents' retirement house on Sanibel was several years old before the first person confused us by telling us they loved the lanai.

Here in New England it's a mudroom, for obvious reasons I suppose, whereas back in Michigan we just called it a back hallway.

My grandmother who, ironically, lived in Davenport, IA, called it a couch.

Here in Maine it's always a chest of drawers, not a bureau or dresser, and the individual drawers are often called draws. Don't know if that's just an understandable regional mistake because of the accent (say "draaaaahs") or because it's an actual variant. (Well, of course it's an actual variant 'cause they all say it, but is it one I shouldn't mock, is what I'm wondering. ;-) )

They will also say huntboard instead of buffet, and I've often heard escritoire for desk (French Canadian?).

Back in the German midwest I'd hear variants on Schrank, which is a large garderobe or freestanding clothes wardrobe.

When we shopped for houses in FL recently, we wanted a screened-in area around the pool, basically a big screen room that has rom for the pool, a table, a seating area and a hammock- screens on the sides and the ceiling. Most of the listings referred to that area as the lanai and that is mostly what we call it. Our realtor and a few others referred to it as a "bird cage" but we never call it that!

Interesting thread!

I really want a solarium/screened porch/sunroom/conservatory/lanai/patio room/covered patio/portal/bird cage(!), don't care what it's called!

I've never heard the term "VAL-et" - have always pronounced it val-AY. Also always fi-LAY not FILL-et for meat but FILL-et for fish. Filleting is what one does to fish to remove the bones.

I have a "stove" in my kitchen, not a "range". A "range" here is where people run cattle, as in "Home on the Range". LOL

I've always called faucets "taps". Since living in Europe I've called our 1/2 bath a "toilette" (pronounced toy-letta) but most people probably call it a powder room.

English is a strange language with many influences and as an English Canadian from the west born in the 40's who has lived across Canada, including Quebec (French speaking province), as well as in Europe, I'm not sure where my "house vocabulary" all comes from! It's a real mix and most recently from home decor message boards I think!

Soffits are "furdowns" here. A dresser is "chester drawers" but the individual drawers are "draws". The actual waste recipticle in bathroom was a "pot" and there was no such thing as a "vanity". It was the "washbasin" or just plain sink, maybe because it was always a wall mount or pedestal. A cooktop is a stove and so is a range. An oven is part of the stove, unless it's separate, and then it's always a "walloven" like it's one word.

Kitchen cabinets or cupboards?

Drywall or wallboard?

Wash cloth or wash rag or face cloth?

Clothes washer or washing machine or "warsher"?

And lucky, did you turn off those taps or cut off the water? :>)

"Pronouncing valance as "valence." "

How else could that word be pronounced?

And writersblock, I was trying to come up with any possible link from Florida that would explain the thinking that lanai is one of our terms...Golden Girls was the only thing I could come up with. As noted, I have never heard normal (ie non realtors and not even them) use that phrase in my area.

Ann

Here in central gulf coast Florida many people have 'lanais' which are roofed patios often leading to the pool.

Back in England everyone had an airing cupboard, most still do! We had various outhouses including a washhouse (for laundry) a coalhouse and an outside toilet (the only one we had for our entire family). Outside toilets were often referred to as 'privvies' and I remember the earlier ones that had no water! We had no bathroom. The hot water for the central heating system is stored in a 'boiler'.
Every home has a kettle for boiling water for tea and coffee, and a teapot. My Welsh grandmother always called forks "prongs". We had flatirons, heated on the fire, for ironing clothes and a wringer for squeezing out all the laundry rinse water. During my childhood many people did not have washing machines so used a 'dolly tub' and 'dolly legs' for washing laundry and 'dolly blue' to add to the water to give whites a 'blue white cast'. I used a 'pansion' for mixing bread.

People there still have 'bedroom suites' (furniture) and bathroom suites (tub, toilet and wash basin). However those who have not yet visited should not imagine that western Europe is primitive. Their stores are selling bathrooms, kitchens, and furniture that are sleek, stylish and cutting edge. I wander around the stores with my jaw dropped!

Sorry. I should have been more clear.

Valance, pronounced with a short "a" -- val-ens
Referring to the curtain/window topper -- and perhaps the wild west movie character (Liberty Valance)

Valence, pronounced with a long "a" -- vey-lens
Used in science, both natural and social

Bedroom suit, here, which includes a dresser--long low piece, usually two drawers wide with a mirror, and a chest of drawers--taller and thinner, usually one drawer wide.

I read a new-to-me term on GW this week. Someone posted about a fireroom--I assume it was their furnace room (utility room, mechanical room), which housed the furnace, heater, or heat-stove.

Posted by awm03 (My Page) on
Tue, Jul 3, 12 at 10:36

"Don't forget couch, sofa, or divan! "
In Nova Scotia they called it a Chesterfield

Livewire, where I live ,cupboards are above the countertop in the kitchen, cabinets are below.

Most decorating shows call a bathroom attached to the master bedroom an "ensuite". Not sure I'm spelling that correctly, so forgive me :) In New York we still call it the master bath. "Ensuite" sounds so royal!

While on the subject of terms, what is "mid-century"? I think of mid century as 50s, but from what I've seen on TV, it would seem to actually be 60s design...

Live wire, is Chester drawers correct or a short version of chest of drawers? I've seen it used on Craigslist a few times, and it always cracked me up thinking the person was just trying to be funny. ;o)

I know a few people who have "great rooms" but they don't use that term, around here it's a family room. A few folks on the BAH forum use the term "grand room", which I have never heard before, and, frankly, hope doesn't catch on, it's faux pretentious IMO.

I've never heard bedroom furniture called a suit or a suite, I guess those terms never made it this far north.

Here in NNY our outdoor rooms are a porch if it has a roof (screens are optional), a deck if it's wood or plastic wood and raised, a patio if it's ground level. No one here has the stones to say "lanai", but a 3 or 4 season room glassed in on 2 or 3 sides is a "Florida Room".

How "chest of drawers" becomes "chester draws" I have no idea, but I don't know how it can be correct.

sandyponder

Here in the Carolinas where furniture is made, it is definitely a suit of furniture.

In my parents' house, we had a utility room for washer and dryer. Back when they bought that house in the 70's, that was what it was called.

A friend of mine from grad school who is Canadian but of Guyanan descent called a heaboard a bed-head and a footboard a bed-foot. I had never heard that before. So, I don't know if it's Canadian English or not.

It's probably Guyanese vs. Guyanan. Guyana was a British Colony.

Here in Virginia, a huntboard is about a foot taller than a typical sideboard, is of very simple design on four slender square or slightly tapered legs, and was used for serving a hunt breakfast.

I always thought that it was tall so you could snatch things off the top without dismounting, but I may have made that up...

As a child, I bathed with a washrag.

The thing with drawers we put clothes in was a chest if it was tall, and a bureau if it was low.

And the first exposure I had to "lanai" was in California, and I understand it to be a Hawaiian word for a covered outdoor terrace, or a separate open covered structure at the beach.

Growing up in Upstate NY we didn't have a front hall. We had a vestibule. There was a door from your living room which opened up to a small hall. Then you had your door to the outside. I think it was to keep the cold out of your living room. My MIL calls the living room the parlor. My mom calls the basement the cellar. And yes, anybody that had a finished basement called it the rumpus room.

"Bed-head" is what your hair looks like when you wake up.

I notice no one seems to use "bedstead" anymore. Everyone seems to say "bed frame."

I am popping up again only because so many of your regional terms are rooted in the words so familiar in my first 40 years of life in England.
We always had a 'bedhead' and 'foot' or 'footboard'. Our washcloth was a 'flannel'.
In my childhood most houses, however modest, had a 'parlour' that was sometimes only used for weddings and funerals! Life was crammed into the kitchen which also served as a family room while the 'parlour' went unused! The term is much less common now except in grand houses.
A bureau was a writing desk and chest of drawers combined, usually with a drop down flap to enable you to sit comfortably to write. A cupboard was any piece of furniture or built in space that had a door or doors. So the enclosed space under the stairs was the 'understairs cupboard'.
A 'tall boy' was sometimes a part of a bedroom suite. It was taller than a chest of drawers and may have had drawers at the bottom and shelves or hanging space at the top. A bedroom suite might also include a dressing table.
I always thought that the differences between a huntboard and a sideboard were that the huntboard was taller and narrower, had no storage, and served only as a buffet. A sideboard had drawers and cupboards for storing 'cutlery' and china.

Oh I'm sure that chester drawers is incorrect English, but it IS ingrained in the Southern idiom of country folk. Just like it's a "Chiff-a-robe" instead of an "armoire"---which is spelled "armwar" in local Craigslist-ese. Speaking of which, you ought to see the Craigslist around here! It's filled with "rod iron chanderleers" and "frigraters" and "orental" rugs that get placed on the "harwood" floors under "dinning" tables and "cheers".

And lucky, did you turn off those taps or cut off the water?

We always "turned the taps on or off", I've never heard the term "cut off the water".

I've never heard some of the terms attributed here to be Canadian but Canada is a large country with many different European influences so there are a lot of regional differences in language. As there are in the US also.

My house vocabulary has always been intermingled- my father was from Wilbraham,Mass. and my mother was from Lynchburg VA, by way of Charleston NC. I grew up in AZ. so there were so many regionalisms that they were interchangeable in my family and made sense.
but things got confusing when we moved to Maryland.Everyone thought I should know what a commode was ( toilet or terlet in bawlmorese) and had a terrible time figuring out what a lavatory was and what one did in there.
And less confusingly,bureau draws became a dresser,couch or davenport turned into sofa,foyer became foyay, butI still say foyer. and so forth.
I put things away in my cupboards, but I shopped for kitchen cabinets. Oh and my grandparents lived in Cal for years and had a lanai- a very small patio, surrounded by tropical plantings and on three sides by a tall fence for privacy.
In AZ we had a patio, not at all the same as a lanai- and I never heard of an Arizona room. But love Fla rooms with pools in Fla.
i am sure there are lots more. fun thread Bronwynsmom!

Live wire, yep, here in Austin also, especially the 'rod' iron, also cracks me up! I've tried occasionally correcting people, cause if it were me, I would feel studid. Lol

Fun thread!

My childhood home was a 1966 ranch style house in an unassuming southwest Michigan suburb. The nicely- sized room just inside the front door was the "front entry way." The only bathroom which had a tub/shower was the "main bath"; the smaller bathroom with only a toilet and sink was the "half bath." About 1/3 of the basement was raised about two feet off the ground-- you had to literally crawl around up there-- my parents called it the "storage area." They said it as if it were one word: "storagaria." Our couch was a davenport. Each family member had their own chest of drawers, again pronounced as if one word: " chestadroors."

And was it supper or dinner in your home? ;o)

> notice no one seems to use "bedstead" anymore. Everyone seems to say "bed frame."

Hmm, to me the wood parts of a bed like the one I have, with wood sides and foot in addition to the headboard, would be a bedstead, but the iron thing they throw in when you buy a mattress is a bed frame.

And was it supper or dinner in your home?

Most nights it was dinner, but on Sundays we had dinner in the middle of the day, and a light supper in the evening.

Our house had 2 bathrooms, one with a tub, the other with a shower. The bathroom with the tub was the "girls" bathroom, and the smaller one was the "boys". My parents didn't have a master bath, so my mom, sister and I used the girls bathroom, and my brother and father used the boys.

Supper, unless it was a party, in which case dinner, unless you just asked a friend to come over for supper, and dinner in the middle of the day on Sunday.

I think dinner was the mid-day meal in more agrarian times, when the big meal was needed to fuel the hard-working farmers, and supper was the lighter one that you ate at sunset before you sat on the porch for half an hour and then collapsed into bed.

In the same vein, breakfast was literal - a big meal to break the fast after the pre-dawn chores, before the regular morning's work began.

I'd have made a terrible farmer.

We have dinner in the eating area of our kitchen which also includes a sitting area. The dining room is used for special holiday dinners which is beside the living room which we now use all the time because during the renos we deformalized it by removing the "window treatments" and adding a big screen tv.

On eastern Nebraskan farms, you had breakfast at 6 or 7, took lunch with you to eat in the fields around 11, came inside for dinner at 1, and had supper when you came back at sundown.

Oh, and chiffarobe! They actually exist outside of the "bust up a" context? :-)

Credenza. What is it?

I grew up in Eastern Washington and we also called the couch a davenport, which was confusing as a kid becuase of the famous historic Davenport Hotel in Spokane

mopboards are baseboards
The fruit room was a pantry full of canned fruit.

A chiffarobe is a mixture of wardrobe and chest of drawers, usually with hanging space down one side behind a door, and drawers down the other. Sort of a small portable closet, used in modest older houses that had very little (if any at all) clothing storage built in.

I was thinking about that lack of closets (my house suffers mightily from this affliction) the other day, and realized that nobody had anywhere near as many clothes as we do now, even in my mother's generation (she's in her 90's).

>They actually exist outside of the "bust up a" context? :-)

That was the first time I ever ran across it, too. :)

Chifforobes (the word has numerous spellings) were sold by Sears and Roebuck, so were widely available; not just in the southern U.S.

Like bronwynsmom said, old houses, not many closets.

Sort of off-track, but:
In my younger days, a friend was going to water my plants for me, so she asked me where my hosepipe was.
I asked, "My what?"
She laughed at me for a long time.
(We always called it a garden hose.)

Would the last poster here please outen the lights?
Casey

Chesterfield was used all over Canada I think. The use of the word has declined over the past few decades and a couple of friends and I are dong our best to revive it. Fabulous word, much better than couch, my alternate word.

I should note that a Chesterfield really must have high arms, but I think it was used for any couch.

Fun thread.

>I should note that a Chesterfield really must have high arms

I always thought it meant to a sofa, usually leather, usually tufted, with arms and back on a level, like this:

{{!gwi}}

Sorry for the ugly photo but it was the smallest image I could fine in a quick google.

That IS an English Chesterfield, exactly as you describe, writersblock.

Could be, particularly In the UK. The one I had growing up had the high back and arms and the tufts, but was peacock blue fabric. It was fab, I wish my parents had held onto it. Our 80s chesterfield wasn't nearly as cool.