Is a hot dog a sandwich if it’s in a bun? Why or why not? Is a burrito a sandwich? (A Massachusetts judge actually ruled on that question in 2006.) What about a veggie wrap? These kinds of questions about the limits and core meanings of various words are more complicated that you might think. Lexicographers try to tease out the answers when writing dictionary entries. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “What Makes a Sandwich?”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
Oh, that’s a hard one.
What do you think? Is a hot dog a sandwich?
Yes, a hot dog is a sandwich because it’s something that has a savory filling.
It’s contained in a carbohydrate.
You can add different garnishes to it, and you can hold it in your hand to eat.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
But what about, it doesn’t involve two slices of, different slices of bread.
It’s hinged bread.
It’s not flat bread.
It’s not sliced bread.
That’s a good point.
And the meat on it is round instead of flat, and things aren’t stacked like sediment.
So you can’t stack.
I don’t know.
A hot dog as a sandwich seems difficult to me.
And is an ice cream sandwich a sandwich?
Oh, that’s a good one, too.
Right.
Because does it have a savory filling?
No.
But does it involve two bread-like things with filling in the middle?
Yes.
Yeah.
What about an Oreo cookie?
They call those Oreo sandwich cookies.
Right?
How far away from a sandwich can you get?
Well, here’s a question for you.
Is a wrap a burrito?
Right?
And why not?
When does a burrito, what’s the spectrum of burrito to wrap?
At what point does it become a wrap?
A spectrum.
Yeah.
Or is a wrap a sandwich?
Maybe technically a wrap is a sandwich.
Maybe it is.
These are questions that when we do dictionary entries that we struggle with.
Right?
When is dusk?
We know that dusk is at the end of the day, but at what moment does day turn into night or day turn into dusk?
I mean, it’s a gradation, right?
Yeah.
And so when we are defining words in the dictionary, we have this struggle to make sure that we encompass as many possible answers, but also don’t over-define it to include everything in the world.
Because you just might say, it’s a thing, right?
All nouns are things.
Yeah, yeah.
Or you define it as, you know, a sandwich is, the hot dog is sandwiched in the bun.
There’s another way to look at this, the problems of defining where a word’s limits are, or meaning’s limits are.
It’s better to think about it as meanings rather than words.
Dictionaries are really poor at providing context, right, to make sure that a hot dog is a sandwich in these certain situations and not in these other ones, right?
And here’s another one for you if you want to have a philosophical question over your next wine or beer.
Does it stop, if it is a sandwich, if a hot dog is a sandwich, does it stop being a sandwich when you separate the meat from the bun?
Like you just simply take the meat out and put it next to it on the plate.
Is it now still a sandwich?
No.
Right.
Right.
So there we’re on to something, right?
They still have to be.
What if I take a hamburger, which most people would call a sandwich, and I take that meat out of the bun and set it by the side?
Is that still a sandwich?
No.
I don’t think so.
I don’t think so.
Do you?
I don’t know if I have an opinion yet on that.
I’m one of those people who also believes that open-faced sandwiches aren’t sandwiches.
That was going to be my next point.
If you have a hot brown in Louisville or something.
No, it’s not a sandwich.
It needs a top.
Or what about if you take a slice of pizza and is that an open-faced sandwich technically?
Or if you fold it over.
Right.
And now you have pepperoni inside.
Has it turned into a sandwich?
Oh, my gosh.
Do you realize people are listening and they’re realizing the kinds of conversations that you and I have in the parking lot?
This is frightening.
Well, it sounds more like the dorm room freshman year when you first encountered the friend who had a connection with a certain guy who could get you something.
Right.
Well, what we’re talking about here is what words meaning, the limits of those meanings, and how a lot of what we talk about in language is arbitrary.
If you’ve got opinions on any of these questions, give us a call, 877-929-9673.
Especially if a hot dog is a sandwich.
Explain in an email to words@waywordradio.org or hit us up on Twitter @wayword.
