Date: Sun, 15 Oct 1995 04:32:01 -0400

From: Benjamin Barrett Gogaku[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GNN.COM

Subject: cook stove, a/c



Heilan Yvette Grimes writes:



Cook in cook stove is not meant to be redundant, but rather explanatory. A

cook stove is different than a regular stove. Most people think of a

regular stove as having burners and an oven. A cook stove is usually a few

tabletop burners and no oven.



This makes the most sense to me: I had trouble with this word when I was

teaching English conversation in Japan; ultimately, it seems to me that

with reference to the kitchen appliance, there are three words:



stove (used commonly for cook stove) -- this is the burner section plus oven

range -- this is the burner section (on top)

oven -- used for baking, broiling, etc.



I think all three words are used interchangably anywhere in the Union (at

the least) to refer to the whole appliance itself, but the degree to which

different areas of the country use the different terms may differ quite a

lot.



The other issue with stove is that the word stove has in the past referred

to "heaters." In fact, the word "sutoubu," borrowed into Japanese from

English means heater.



I personally am having trouble with the word "air conditioner" (aka a/c).

The severely abbreviated borrowed word in Japanese "aiaa kon" means a

machine that heats or cools a room. The word itself seems to belie that

fact; yet, in Seattle, where such devices are few and far between, the word

"a/c" seems to mean a machine that cools down a room. Is that the common

meaning?



yoroshiku

Benjamin Barrett