telophase: (Near - que?)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2013-10-02 11:35 am

Linguistics question!

In your dialect of English, what foodstuff/s does "chive" refer to? What area of the world/nation did you pick it up from?


Asking, because in Toby's family, "chives" are green onions (spring onions, scallions) as well as the oniony herb, which, after a few incidents, has led to each of us making sure to specify exactly what we mean when one of us asks the other to pick some up at the store. He thinks it comes from his mother's side of the family, who are Kentuckians, I believe, and I'm wondering if it's a regional thing or just a their-family thing.

I checked the Dictionary of American Regional English at work, but the only entry for "chive" is a variant of "shiv," referring to the weapon, so that's no go.
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[personal profile] yhlee 2013-10-02 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
My sister tells me chives, green onions, and the Korean green-onion-like pa are three different species. At this poitn I'm just confused. But to me chives are small and skinny and very distinct from green onions.
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[personal profile] thistleingrey 2013-10-03 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
I agree with your sister, FWIW. P'a is bigger than US-standard green onion (scallion) but differently shaped from leek or "spring onion" (latter is often red-tinged around here, unlike conventional scallions). FWIW, my mother says p'a is none of the varieties for which Kitazawa sells seed!

Against that, distinguishing flat chives from scallions is easy. What I have trouble with is flat chives versus garlic chives.
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[personal profile] the_rck 2013-10-02 05:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Chives are a green herb sort of thing, long stemmed and hollow. They taste of onion, more or less.
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[personal profile] sophisted 2013-10-02 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
This is my experience, too. I'm in Florida. Although I have heard people who just don't know any better call green onions chives because they look similar.
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[personal profile] jinian 2013-10-02 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Chives are Allium schoenoprasum only. I'm from the Seattle area and have never heard of any ambiguity before.
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[personal profile] lnhammer 2013-10-02 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
This.

From the mid-Atlantic region, raised by native Midwesterners.

---L.
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[personal profile] torachan 2013-10-03 07:12 am (UTC)(link)
Chives is not a word I have ever used much myself. If pressed I'd guess that it is something oniony, perhaps like nira, which a quick look at wikipedia seems to confirm. Not the same as green onions. I guess I just picked it up from osmosis, books maybe?

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[personal profile] jet 2013-10-03 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Chives can also refer to green onions in my family. We're from Tennessee.

[identity profile] eglantine-br.livejournal.com 2013-10-02 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I am a USian, from the East coast. To me a chive is a green small onion shoot thing, like the top of a scallion, small. Sometimes they grow wild.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2013-10-02 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
That's what it's always been for me, too.

[identity profile] luna-the-cat.livejournal.com 2013-10-02 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm a dual US/UK citizen, grew up in Colorado and now live in Scotland. To me, chives are a this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/chives

And, I could not tell you where exactly I picked that up from.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2013-10-02 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Same here. So far, nobody else uses Toby's family's definition. Hm.

[identity profile] lrodell.livejournal.com 2013-10-02 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm, I usually think the teeny green onions, but sometimes we call regular-sized green onions that, especially the *green* parts? And, we had green onions growing wild in our yard in New Orleans^^
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[identity profile] batwrangler.livejournal.com 2013-10-02 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Northeast and thin, oniony greens that can be grown in the garden and have rather Suessian heads of purple flowers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Allium_schoenoprasum_in_NH_01.jpg

Not sure where the family usage came from as part of my family was 1-3 generation American hailing mainly from Italy and Ireland in the early 1910-1920s and part has been in the northeast (VT/NH) since at least the Civil War.

[identity profile] lady-ganesh.livejournal.com 2013-10-06 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
This is my definition too. I have some growing half-wild near my garage. Won me a white ribbon at the local fair this year.
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[personal profile] chomiji 2013-10-03 01:19 am (UTC)(link)

Chives are teeny skinny green onion things that are not onion grass (which grew in our lawn abundantly when I was a child) or spring onions/scallions. They are grown as herbs and end up in lots of dairy-based things, like cottage cheese and sour-cream-based veggie dip.

I think my mother may have grown them as part of an herb garden when I was a child, so the area of the world etc. is Maryland, USA, in the 1960s.

[identity profile] badnoodles.livejournal.com 2013-10-03 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
I'd be with Toby's definition. For us, "chive" was the sliced green tops of any onion-y thing, usually the green onions from the grocery store. I suspect that's because we were never rich enough to buy *actual* chives, so Mom only ever used a substitute.