ask a brit

[Dominus]

Non-wdw question. I know the brits call red-heds gingers. Where did it come from? Was it from Ginger on Gilligan's Island? Or was she called Ginger because the brits called red-heads gingers? Was it from Ginger Rogers?

 

[PoppyAnna]

Oh, good question, I really don't know - and I have a ginger daughter

Hope you get an answer

 

[Goofyish]

I don't think it was named after anyone it's just a name for the colour - ginger.

 

[Ware Bears]

Interesting question but I'm afraid I don't know the answer!

I don't think we had Gilligan's Island on TV in the UK although it may be that I just don't remember it.

Perhaps it's called ginger after Ginger Rogers as her hair was the pale red colour that I think of as ginger rather than brighter/deeper shades that I would call red/auburn.

My brother-in-law has emigrated to Australia and when he was over last he told me that over there red heads are called blue or bluey. Where's the logic in that?

 

[Ware Bears]

Another thought ~ maybe it's called ginger after the cat in Beatrix Potter's story Ginger and Pickles.

 

[Aisling]

I'm not a Brit, but an Irish friend of mine told me that since redheads were "lively", they call them gingers because the spice ginger is used to "liven" up a meal. He's 74 years old, so this goes way back, according to him.



Not to hijack, but I also have an Ask a Brit question:

What do you mean when you ask someone "what are you having for tea"? Is it lunch??

 

[#1MMFan]

No, normally "tea" would be referring to your evening dinner but I guess it varies depending on the part of the UK. I would say "what are you having for lunch?" if it was simply for lunch.

Ask an American: Why do you say "Do you got the time?" instead of saying "Do you have the time?". It sounds so ungrammatical!

 

[Dominus]

Don't sweat the hijack. Maybe we need an official "ask a brit" thread. That'd be sweat. Anyway, some of us do say "do you have the time", I think most in fact. However, we aren't too keen on the king's english. We butcher it with revel. In the south especially. We say thing like your "moms" instead of mom. "I loves me some..." etc.

 

[natalielongstaff]

great thread, Tea is definatly the evening meal....or if referring to afternoon tea then its a small snack and drink mid afternoon

 

[Dimplenose]

Tea is always in the evening (unless it's afternoon tea) but dinner can be used to refer to tea or lunch depending which part of the country you're from.

 

[joolz1910]

Doesn't everyone call it ginger? two thirds of my children have ginger hair and it had never occurred to me that it wasn't called 'ginger' in other countries.

Having said that, when I was out with youngest DD a few weeks ago, a group of Japanese tourists started taking photos of her like she was a celebrity baby. There were about 20 of them! She loved the attention, and I asked my friend why they were so intrigued by her - apparently it's the novelty of the ginger hair!

At home we call the evening meal 'dinner' but at school the 'dinner bell' rings at lunch time in the afternoon.

 

[Pegasus928]

We have dinner and tea at the same time of day other people might have lunch and dinner.
When we go out for a meal we also go for starters and main course as opposed to appetisers and entrees. Oh and we also sometimes have a pudding - not a dessert

 

[comingtodisney]

in our house we say dinner for our lunch, and tea for our evening meal, we also say pudding for dessert.

 

[Dimplenose]

I always get confused because I'm sure an entree should be a starter.

 

[wideeyes]

We don't say tea, we say dinner.

 

[gemmybear83]

I always get confused because I'm sure an entree should be a starter.

I always think that too!

 

[Dominus]

Mostly here it's dinner. Although some people call dinner, supper. Not sure where that came from, or the logic behind it. It's kind of a Texas/Southern thing. I'm not sure you'd hear it up north. We also park in our driveway, and drive on our parkway.

 

[Clare D]

I think it depends where you are in the UK sometimes to how you phrase things. I live right in the middle of the country and here we call the meal in the evening teatime. However if I was going out for a posh meal it wouldn't be tea and I wouldn't say dinner either as dinner is whet I have at midday.

Could the term ginger come from the colour of a ginger tabby cat? I have no idea on this one sorry.

 

[Dominus]

I think it depends where you are in the UK sometimes to how you phrase things. I live right in the middle of the country and here we call the meal in the evening teatime. However if I was going out for a posh meal it wouldn't be tea and I wouldn't say dinner either as dinner is whet I have at midday.

Could the term ginger come from the colour of a ginger tabby cat? I have no idea on this one sorry.

Ah, the saga continues. In the states we call the cat an orange-taggy. I've never heard them called a ginger-tabby.

 

[Dimplenose]

I've always assumed that the orange hair/fur colour was referred to as ginger because it is a similar colour to ginger and all the nicknames came from that.