Η λέξη biscuit δεν μεταφράζεται πάντα μπισκότο στα ελληνικά, επειδή στα αγγλικά έχει δύο σημασίες.
Στα ελληνικά: μπισκότο το : γλύκισμα από ζύμη διαμορφωμένη σε μικρά και λεπτά κομμάτια, τα οποία ψήνονται καλά στο φούρνο, ώστε να γίνουν τραγανά: Mπισκότα γλυκά / αρμυρά / γεμιστά.
Στα αγγλικά:
In the United States and sometimes in Canada, it is a small, soft, leavened bread, somewhat similar to a scone, though generally softer and fluffier. Although yeast may be used as a leavening agent, it is often replaced or supplemented with baking powder orbaking soda. A Southern regional variation on the term, "beaten biscuit", is closer to the British variety. In Canada, the British phrasing is also commonly used as the country is part of the Commonwealth of Nations.
In Commonwealth English, it is a small baked product that would be called either a "cookie" or a "cracker" in the United States and sometimes a "cookie" in English-speaking Canada. Biscuits in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Ireland may be savoury (savoury biscuits are often referred to as "crackers") or sweet, such as chocolate biscuits,ginger nuts, custard creams, or the Nice biscuit. Although in Commonwealth Nations, the term "cookie" may be synonymous with "biscuit", a cookie is generally a softer baked product.
American biscuit and one variety of British bisquit
American biscuit
Προφανώς το American biscuit είναι ένα είδος ψωμιού και όχι μπισκότο, και επομένως, όταν βλέπουμε biscuit σε αγγλικό κείμενο, το πώς θα το μεταφράσουμε εξαρτάται από το συγκείμενο. Π.χ. Αν πρόκειται για φαγητό σε αμερικάνικο εστιατόριο, η πιο κοντινή μετάφραση για τα biscuits νομίζω ότι είναι ψωμάκια. Υπάρχει καμιά άλλη πρόταση;
“England and America are two countries divided by a common language.” So said George Bernard Shaw (allegedly). Much has been written about words that are chiefly used in one country or the other (for example, eggplant in the US and aubergine in the UK), but there are also words that exist in both countries but have different meanings depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on, and it’s very possible to find yourself lost in translation if you don’t know the lingo. For example, if someone in the US were to say they are wearing pants and suspenders to a party, you wouldn’t think anything of it, though you might question your friend’s fashion choices. If you were to make the same declaration in the UK, well, you might question what kind of party you’re going to, and decide to stay in for the night.
Having grown up in the US and the UK, I am acutely aware of how American English and British English are different, and it’s especially interesting when the difference is so subtle. As we’ve recently added snacky to OxfordDictionaries.com, we thought this would be a good opportunity to look at the subtle differences between the biscuit and the cookie.
Biscuit
Let’s start with the biscuit. In the UK, your biscuit might be topped with chocolate or have currants in it. You might dip it in your cup of tea, or have one (or two or maybe three) as a snack after lunch. If you were in the US, however, you might put bacon and eggs on it or smother it in gravy and have it for breakfast. Or you might put a piece of chicken on it and have it for dinner.
Oxforddictionaries.com notes this difference, giving two definitions for the word. But how did these two very different meanings come to be? According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word biscuit comes originally from the Latin biscotum (panem), which means bread ‘twice baked’, which would explain the hard, crunchy quality of a British biscuit. An American biscuit is more like what the Brits would call a scone (and an American scone is something else entirely), and the pronunciation is another matter entirely. It’s unclear how these two different foods came to have the same word, and we can only speculate about the influence of the French language in the southern United States.
The word cookie opens up a whole other can of worms. In the UK, a cookie is a soft, squishy, moist biscuit (for lack of a better word). British cookies tend to be bigger and more substantial than a British biscuit. In the US, a cookie covers both what the British would call a biscuit and a cookie. The word comes from the Dutch koekje, meaning ‘little cake,’ and could have been popularized in the US due to early Dutch colonization, though we don’t know for sure.
So you’ve got it, right? A British biscuit is an American cookie and an American cookie is a British cookie and an American biscuit is a British scone and an American scone is something else entirely. Simple! Now, what would you like with your tea?
What would I like with my tea? A madeleine, please! And none of the babbling, thank you.
