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Comment by fjsolwmv | Hacker News Reader

What is delicatessen? In USA that just means cold cuts of meat.

Delicatessen means the same thing.

"Meat" in Europe, we learnt while we were there, doesn't really mean what it means in the Anglosphere. For us, "meat" groups up and basically means any animal flesh. For them (or at least: France, Spain, Italy), meat, poultry, delicatessen are all different classifications. Push the term "meat" down a layer in your ontology :).

Well I used Google Translate, but I guess it's something like that. The french word is Charcuterie.

I haven't found a website in English, but here some pictures and classification (in french)

http://www.cuisinealafrancaise.com/fr/produits/boucherie-cha...

Searching was also the occasion for me to remember that french gastronomy is since 2010 "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" :-)

http://us.france.fr/en/information/gastronomic-meal-french-5

We use the French word in the states.

Oh ok ! Learned something, thanks.

I mean, to be fair you’ll also see antipasto, deli tray, meat & cheese board or even in some German influenced communities “vespers”.

But if you say charcuterie you’ll be understood.

Interesting to see Vesper (pronounced Feshper where I live). That's a distinctly southern German term that not even most Germans will use.

I’ve seen it used mostly in small towns in the Midwest that were strongly German immigrant communities.

If you go to the upper Midwest you will similar odd uses of Scandinavian words.

It would not surprise me at all to learn that these communities are using archaic or even incorrect words.

It's correct and not archaic, it's just something very localized in Germany, which I wouldn't necessarily expect a mixed immigrant community to adopt.

The literal translation (from German delikat essen) is 'delicious food'

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