this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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Showerthoughts

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"Fry" is an ambiguous word in English (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by NorthWestWind@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Here are 3 examples:
Fried egg, fried rice, fried chicken

All these "fry" are different. If you were to use the "fry" in fried rice to fry an egg, you'd get scrambled egg. Fried chicken is done by submerging it in oil, which you won't do with fried egg or fried rice.

This post is made from the perspective of a Cantonese/Chinese speaker. We have different words for these different types of "fry" (煎, 炒, 炸 respectively)

(Turns out I did post it in the wrong sub and I didn't realize, and now I feel very stupid. Photon UI has once again screwed me over. Got mad for no reason.)

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Wait until you run into the other usages of the word!

But frying food is just using direct heat and oil to cook, regardless of the depth of the oil. And, you'd be surprised how deep the oil is when some people fry eggs or rice. It isn't too unusual for eggs to have enough oil that they more or less float on top of it, though that isn't done for scrambled eggs.

The word fry is also used to mean baby fish, electronics being damaged by surges or excess voltage/amperage, and sometimes even to indicate that someone is inebriated via drugs other than alcohol. Plus there's irregular uses of the word.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Don't forget vocal fry.

[–] snooggums@midwest.social 6 points 4 months ago

Even worse, trailing off vocal fryyyyy.y.y..y.y.y..

[–] Speculater@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

And the most common use of the fish version is to describe a person or animal as a "small fry" when comparing them to another similar group.