Different Meanings for Words

[RainhaDoTexugo]

I would call the kitchen furniture a hutch, and the thing that holds my clothes a dresser.  China cabinets have floor to ceiling glass, and I'm blanking on what I'd call the fancy dining room version of a hutch.  We have a built-in hutch with drawers on the bottom and glass doored shelves on top, and I call it a "built in."  I've had non-Chicagoans look at me like I was speaking Greek for that one.  It always throws me off watching home shows, when I see built in bookshelves or entertainment centers just called built ins.

I would never refer to the weekend that just passed as this weekend.  If I had to specify, I'd call it last weekend, but I'd probably just say "over the weekend."  DH and I get into ridiculous disagreements over this weekend and next weekend.  I think this weekend is the one coming up, and depending on context, next weekend is either the weekend coming up or the following weekend.  I don't even remember what he thinks, but it invariably leads to confusion when he gives me his schedule.

[Ms_Cellany]

This leads to the question of the 'Welsh Dresser'.  To my understanding, the term is used in the UK for free-standing kitchen storage unit.  Is this accurate?

A type of, but not all, free-standing kitchen furniture: it's an item with cupboards/drawers down below, and shelves up top (often used for displaying china):

I call that a hutch.

[Larrabee]

This leads to the question of the 'Welsh Dresser'.  To my understanding, the term is used in the UK for free-standing kitchen storage unit.  Is this accurate?

A type of, but not all, free-standing kitchen furniture: it's an item with cupboards/drawers down below, and shelves up top (often used for displaying china):

I call that a hutch.

A hutch is where outdoor rabbits live!

[Betelnut]

This leads to the question of the 'Welsh Dresser'.  To my understanding, the term is used in the UK for free-standing kitchen storage unit.  Is this accurate?

A type of, but not all, free-standing kitchen furniture: it's an item with cupboards/drawers down below, and shelves up top (often used for displaying china):

I call that a hutch.

A hutch is where outdoor rabbits live!

I call both a hutch.  Same word--different meanings.

[RainhaDoTexugo]

Yep, different kinds of hutches.  That shelf that attaches over your desk is also a hutch, but in that case, the desk itself is still a desk.

[camlan]

  We have a built-in hutch with drawers on the bottom and glass doored shelves on top, and I call it a "built in."  I've had non-Chicagoans look at me like I was speaking Greek for that one. 

In most of New England, I've heard that called a china closet or china cabinet. Sometimes it's a "built-in china cabinet/closet" and sometimes just "china cabinet." I have one in my dining room. Privately, I call it the "catch-all" because I throw a lot of junk in the drawers when I need to tidy up quickly.

"Built in" by itself refers to any built-in storage, other than kitchen cabinets. You might have built-in bookcases or cabinets in the living room or family room, for instance.

[hobish]

I would call the kitchen furniture a hutch, and the thing that holds my clothes a dresser.  China cabinets have floor to ceiling glass, and I'm blanking on what I'd call the fancy dining room version of a hutch.  We have a built-in hutch with drawers on the bottom and glass doored shelves on top, and I call it a "built in."  I've had non-Chicagoans look at me like I was speaking Greek for that one.  It always throws me off watching home shows, when I see built in bookshelves or entertainment centers just called built ins.

I would never refer to the weekend that just passed as this weekend.  If I had to specify, I'd call it last weekend, but I'd probably just say "over the weekend."  DH and I get into ridiculous disagreements over this weekend and next weekend.  I think this weekend is the one coming up, and depending on context, next weekend is either the weekend coming up or the following weekend.  I don't even remember what he thinks, but it invariably leads to confusion when he gives me his schedule.

That sounds really neat; i would love one of those.
/OT

[Bethczar]

I would call the kitchen furniture a hutch, and the thing that holds my clothes a dresser.  China cabinets have floor to ceiling glass, and I'm blanking on what I'd call the fancy dining room version of a hutch.  We have a built-in hutch with drawers on the bottom and glass doored shelves on top, and I call it a "built in."  I've had non-Chicagoans look at me like I was speaking Greek for that one.  It always throws me off watching home shows, when I see built in bookshelves or entertainment centers just called built ins.

I would never refer to the weekend that just passed as this weekend.  If I had to specify, I'd call it last weekend, but I'd probably just say "over the weekend."  DH and I get into ridiculous disagreements over this weekend and next weekend.  I think this weekend is the one coming up, and depending on context, next weekend is either the weekend coming up or the following weekend.  I don't even remember what he thinks, but it invariably leads to confusion when he gives me his schedule.

That sounds really neat; i would love one of those.
/OT

We had one of those in the house I grew up in. They're pretty nice.

[Elfmama]

The one that caught me out was solicitors.

I couldn't understand why people had signs on their doors saying no solicitors, as to me a solicitor is a type of lawyer.

Ha ha, yes seeing signs saying "No Solicitors" tee hee, well there are too many lawyers around.

Solicitors are those annoying people who bang on your door trying to sell you something.  Sometimes it's their version of religion, sometimes it's magazines or jewelry or makeup,  and once it was someone who "had a little bit of blacktop left after another job" and did I want my driveway blacktopped at a bargain price?     They all get "Sorry, not interested."

(Riiight.  You have enough asphalt left over from another job that will do a 60-foot driveway, 12-16 feet across?  Then you are incompetent at judging how much you need, and I do not deal with incompetents.  If you are the person who sprays a little bit of tar on the driveway rocks and calls it blacktopping, then you are a liar and a con man.)

(And there ARE too many lawyers!)

[oz diva]

This leads to the question of the 'Welsh Dresser'.  To my understanding, the term is used in the UK for free-standing kitchen storage unit.  Is this accurate?

A type of, but not all, free-standing kitchen furniture: it's an item with cupboards/drawers down below, and shelves up top (often used for displaying china):

I have one of those, I call it a 'dresser'. My kids call it "the big piece of furniture".

[marcel]

This thread is helpfull for me. As a Dutch person I always find English very confusing when it comes to this kind of furniture.

We have one word: kast.
Kast is used for dresser, cabinet, closet, cupboard, etc. etc.  (even the fridge and the freezer.)

When relevant, the word kast comes with a prefix that indicates the use, the location, or the build (clothes, books, kitchen, drawer, freeze, etc.)

WHne translating, I often miss the one simple word, like kast in Dutch, that does not have a connotation other then a piece of furniture to keep things in.

[RainhaDoTexugo]

This is my built-in, and what I think of when I hear built-in.  Any other permanent furniture would have some sort of descriptor to differentiate it from this type of built in.  I'm guessing it's because they're a common feature in old Chicago homes, and other types of built in furniture are a lot less common.  You get built in bookcases flanking fireplaces sometimes, but not nearly as often as this type.  My mom's house has one, too, but hers is bigger, has three wide drawers instead of my four small drawers and cabinet, and hers is in her dining room.  Mine is in the very short hallway leading to the kitchen from the living room - our house doesn't have a dining room at all.

[Elfmama]

The English cognate (word from the same root) for Dutch kast would be the English chest.  That would have been the original container to keep things in -- a box with a hinged lid.  It's only been in recent centuries that humans have accumulated enough different kinds of stuff to warrant specialized containers for them. You saw the mention upthread of a "chest of drawers." 

I'm not familiar enough with Dutch to say, but when you need to describe a new thing, is it more common to add descriptives to words that you already have, or to make up a new word?  (English is notorious for stealing  borrowing words from other languages to describe new things.)

[PaintingPastelPrincess]

This thread is helpfull for me. As a Dutch person I always find English very confusing when it comes to this kind of furniture.

We have one word: kast.
Kast is used for dresser, cabinet, closet, cupboard, etc. etc.  (even the fridge and the freezer.)

When relevant, the word kast comes with a prefix that indicates the use, the location, or the build (clothes, books, kitchen, drawer, freeze, etc.)

WHne translating, I often miss the one simple word, like kast in Dutch, that does not have a connotation other then a piece of furniture to keep things in.

Marcel, that is fascinating! Could you give me an example of the prefixes?

So, basically it would be [blank]kast, with the [blank] meaning something like "for cold things in the kitchen" to indicate a refridgerator or "where clothes hang in the bedroom"?

I love languages

[marcel]

This thread is helpfull for me. As a Dutch person I always find English very confusing when it comes to this kind of furniture.

We have one word: kast.
Kast is used for dresser, cabinet, closet, cupboard, etc. etc.  (even the fridge and the freezer.)

When relevant, the word kast comes with a prefix that indicates the use, the location, or the build (clothes, books, kitchen, drawer, freeze, etc.)

WHne translating, I often miss the one simple word, like kast in Dutch, that does not have a connotation other then a piece of furniture to keep things in.

Marcel, that is fascinating! Could you give me an example of the prefixes?

So, basically it would be [blank]kast, with the [blank] meaning something like "for cold things in the kitchen" to indicate a refridgerator or "where clothes hang in the bedroom"?

I love languages

kleren = clothes so: klerenkast
keuken = kitchen so: keukenkast
boeken = books so: boekenkast
koel - kold so: koelkast
but also:
lade = drawer so: ladenkast
inbouw = build-in so: inbouwkast