Takeaway | Hacker News Reader

Takeaway

notoneoffbritishisms.com

40 pointsjjgreen16 comments

> Now, if I could just figure out the difference between “ordering out” and “ordering in.”

That’s simple:

Ordering-in takeaway is something you do at home with the expectation that it is delivered.

Ordering-out is getting something “to go” when you are already at an establishment where you don’t wish to stay and sit to eat.

In Singaporean/Malaysian English, takeaway is any one of "da bao" (from Mandarin 打包, lit. "put in a packet"), "bungkus" (from Malay, "wrap") or straight up "packet". Because that's what's happening: the hawker prepares the meal and wraps it up in wax paper or a plastic bag instead of serving it on a plate.

Now we need to explain hawker ... literally someone who sells something on the street, or door-to-door, but in Singapore it means selling cheap hot street food, especially in a hawker center, a covered market with many small booths or shops selling cheap hot food.

Somewhere in Singapore, there must be a Hawker News :)

> “takeaway” is predominantly British and the other two American–although Lynne Murphy’s blog post on the subject notes that “take-out” is used in parts of northern England

I’m approaching 50 and have lived in England my entire life, either in south London or further south (university years notwithstanding). For food, takeaway and takeout have been interchangeable in my circles for as long as I can recall. Takeout has also been used for “alcohol […] bought in a pub for consumption off the premises” since … well, forever.

Meanwhile my partner, who is from the north, says she never used or heard takeout when growing up.

Does British English use a different word to denote the conclusion of a discussion? (E.g., my takeaway from this article is that in the UK they have some different words than the US).

Native Brit here from the South of the UK (midlands and London). Never had I ever heard the phrase "take-out" until I moved to the U.S.

All the staff at my local coffee shop ask “for stay or for takeaway?”

They never deviate from this exact script and I find it grating every single time. Coffee is decent though so I let it slide.

Edit: “local” meaning Southern California.

That’s bizarre, is the owner British or something? “Here or to go?” is the standard in the US as far as I’m concerned.

"Takeaway" is also the term used in many non-english speaking countries (by waiters who speak very limited English).

I prefer "to go" over "takeaway" for two essentially meaningless reasons:

First, _go_ is older than _away_. According to Etymology Online, go dates back to Old English ("gan"), while away in sense of "at a distance" is from 1712. Second, I get to save a syllable.

So "to go" is older and less effortful than "takeaway". Also, both work.

If you like the subject and style of writing, check out these books by the same author: "The sound on the page" and "When you catch an adjective, kill it". I highly recommend them.

I say both take-out & carry-out. At least, I can't determine which I say more. Pizza seems to be "for pickup".

Kari-Out [1] makes a lot of the food containers, so maybe that's why I say "carry-out" (or think I say it). Something something, inception.

[1] https://kariout.com/products/

It’s “takeaway” in Australia too. In Tasmania, you sometimes see it pluralised to “takeaways”.

But what about fushion? Do I need a second set of die to account for those?

Perhaps one of those 24 sided dice could account for this nightmare of choice.

Just one "fusion" side is required. When fusion comes up you roll two more times and you get fusion of those two foods. Of course fusion can come up in the subsequent rolls, so this is a recursive rule. Every time fusion comes up you replace that result with two more rolls.

A fushion is a floor cushion in the UK.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com