Sunday, March 6, 2011

quicko: sloppy joe

Sloppy joes have utterly different meanings in America as in Australia.  In America, they are (obviously!) drippy meat sandwiches that make a huge mess.  In Australia, they are (shock!  horror!) a sort of sweater along the lines of track suit material, but not wool.

Either that or one of my co-workers has a family with very creative names for their clothing.

I'm not quite sure which.  Any other Australians want to back her up on this one?

3 comments:

Laetitia :-) said...

A sloppy joe in Oz is indeed a polar fleece loose jumper.

I'm not sure of the etymology but I'd hazard that it's because it's not a fitted jumper, hence the "sloppy" and the "joe" may be short for "joey" - a young macropod (kangaroos, wallabies, quokkas...) hence a "jumper" because they jump.

Mom said...

And this points out the difference between American and Australian meanings for "jumper", as in a type of clothing. In America, a jumper is a loose fitting dress without sleeves, under which is worn a shirt with sleeves. Only a female would wear a jumper here. I think in Australia, a jumper is more along the lines of a sweater in American English. Did I get that right?

Laetitia :-) said...

If an American sweater doesn't open at the front that that would be correct. This type of garment would also be called a 'pullover'.

For us, if it opens at the front then it is a cardigan (commonly shortened to 'cardi' which makes it fun when we also use 'cardi' for a cardiologist!).

Having said that, 'jumper' is the generic term so we might say to someone as we're leaving the house, "Hang on, I've got to get a jumper," and actually come back with a cardigan rather than a pullover.

All this reminds me of when a British quilting speaker was telling a story of all the problems she ran into when she went to the USA to run a workshop - the differences between what each nation understands by such terms as 'vest' and 'calico'.