March 23rd, 2009
Twice now I have observed someone refer to “lettuce” as “salad.”
First time, witnessed at Subway: “On my sandwich I’ll have tomatoes… and olives… and salad.” I had visions of the sandwich artist whipping out a big bowl of caesar salad from behind the counter and dumping a big handful onto the bread.
Second time, read on a blog I enjoy (I paraphrase): “We are going to plant some salad.” Visions of juicy heads of lettuce bursting forth from the soil, complete with little diced cucumber segments and wedges of tomato hidden amongst the leaves.
This is very strange because while lettuce is an important part of most salads, it is not itself salad. It is, itself, whatever type of lettuce it is: iceberg lettuce, or spinach, or romaine, or whatever. A salad is a dish, a lettuce is a vegetable. How did this strange usage get started?
Also, for the love of god, please stop writing “loose” when you mean “lose.” I would like to be appropriately solemn when you have a miscarriage but it’s hard to do so when you have only loosed your baby.
According to Dictionary.com, “salad” can mean:
3. any herb or green vegetable, as lettuce, used for salads or eaten raw.
I’d never heard that before, so I suspect that’s a usage that varies by region, much like “pop” and “soda” (or even “Coke” to mean any type of carbonated beverage as is done in the Southeastern US – see http://popvssoda.com:2998/ for this info).
Totally with you on the “loose/lose” thing, as well as your/you’re and their/there/they’re. My favorite is seeing the ultra-ironic “your an idiot”.
ha ha ha! “Your an idiot”! That’s hilarious!
Give it a rest guys. I’m going to plant some pie and soup.
Yes, and this is why you are a genius! I don’t care what the dictionary says – allowing “salad” to mean “lettuce” reduces precision in language and throws a stick in the spokes of clear communication. There is no need to let salad mean lettuce when lettuce already means lettuce! One concept, two words, the other of which also stands for another concept? If I knew how I would import a little spreadsheet to show the staggering number of different misconceptions that this system allows for when a simple segregation of terms and meanings SOLVES EVERYTHING.
And this is why I should be in charge of the language.