Here we go to the beach.

"There" we go to the seashore.

As a kid, we called our evening meal supper. As an adult, I call it dinner.

DH calls the washroom a "restroom" after living in the US for a number of years.

I think a lot of it here has to do with generation.
when I was growing up, my Grandparents called
everything the way you did growing up... but not
my parents.

Grandma... supper, ,,,,, Mom and me... dinner

A sandwich in a long bun: growing up a sandwich! lol
NOW a sub.

Grandmas.... a pocketbook, NOW a purse.

well, except "parlor" only called a parlor in a victorian house. we called it a living room

Cellar... no windows... with windows was a basement

My grandmother used to call garbage (not trash) swill.
now... garbage or trash... I use both

grandma, mom...divan and or a couch.... me.. a sofa or couch

Yes, I asked someone where the washroom was when I was down south last week. She did a double take, asked me to repeat it and said "you mean the bathroom"?

breakfast, lunch, supper
sub
purse
livingroom
basement
couch

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Sub
Purse
family room
basment
couch

Susan usually people out and about here ask where the ladies room or rest room is...in the house it's called the bathroom...

On the plane it's called the "Lav"...and the kitchen's called the galley...terms from long long ago that we still use!

breakfast, dinner, supper OR
breakfast, lunch, dinner WHICHEVER IS THE MAIN MEAL we always called dinner.

What about couch vs sofa?

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Sub, I grew up just out side of Philly, sandwich was always on sliced bread/round roll.

Purse/pocketbook either one, wear a fanny pack now. started number of years ago when I needed a cane or walker, thank goodness I don't dress up now.

Living room

Basement

Sofa

When I grew up trash and garbage were in seperate cans picked up in seperate trucks...garbage (swill) went to the pig farms, OH what a stench, drove past them on the way to the "shore" a term used for New Jersey beaches. I now live in Delaware where you go to the beach...some towns have beach as part of their name. I will always go to the shore, summer home is there.

My grandmother often called the bathroom the "water closet" I say bathroom except when out shopping then use the term restroom. At one time the J.C Pennies here had a lounge next to the toilet/sink room, so a true "restroom", nice when I needed to nurse my son.

Sue

I grew up in West Texas.
What do you call the evening meal? Supper.DIL calls it Dinner.
A sandwich in a long bun: Sub or hoagie
What a woman carries her stuff around in: Always (still do)called it a purse.

The room where company sits: growing up, the livingroom.

The level of your home below ground: basement.

Garbage.Trash
Couch growing up.I still call it the couch.DIL calls it the sofa.
A couple more: Soft drinks were always coke.My cousin who married an Italian from Pensylvania and lived there for 10 years now calls them sodas.
Pecans are pee-cons,not pee-cans! LOL

I moved from Germany to Oklahoma, and learned a WHOLE NEW set of phrases.

but, here it is supper
trash
sandwich, or sub
purse
living room.
basement
sofa or couch

It seems to me that when America was largely rural "Dinner" was the main meal and was in the middle of the day. "Supper" was a smaller meal in the evening.

The "Parlor" was a no-go area reserved for entertaining a reverend or holding a wake! In later years the "Living Room" also became no-go, reserved for formal entertaining. (We LIVE in ours.)

"Cellar" makes me think of a black pit, with perhaps a heap of coal in one corner and an 'octopus' furnace. It might have a dirt floor. A "Basement" is concrete and might be a "Finished Basement" with living areas. (Today's "Lower Level"!)

"Garbage" has always been distinct from "Trash" in my lifetime. Garbage contains organic matter. We used to burn the paper portion of trash; now it's "Recycling", along with plastic, tin, etc.

Always a "Sofa" here. A "Couch" and a "Divan" are daybeds without backs or arms -- to me.

A friend, driving in the Italian countryside with her DH, needed 'the facilities' urgently. They stopped at an isolated home and rang the bell. My friend asked if the homeowner had a "Bathroom", and was shown a lovely room with shower and tub. Oh, dear! The Signora realized the problem and showed my friend to the "Toilet". (Don't ask where you can wash if you need a toilet!)

BTW have you ever heard a grown woman asking for "The Little Girls' Room"? My grandmother sometimes excused herself to "Pick Water Lillies". LOL How about the Senior Englishwoman who exits to "Spend a Penny"? At the other end of this delicacy over body functions is the nurse's aid in the hospital room next to mine thundering to a deaf male patient every hour, "Didja PEE yet?"

The evening meal is supper. You know like the "Last Supper". Noon meal is either dinner or lunch, depends how big it is. I carry a purse and sit in my living room on my sofa while I eat my sub and drink my pop. A cellar has a brick floor or maybe even a dirt one, a basement is concrete. Trash is stuff that is not a food product, that is garbage. We push a shopping cart, not a buggy to get pee-cons in. A buggy is for babies or for a horse to pull.

Where company sits: den now :o)

My mother had a formal living room, so company sat there.

Family in the den! if there wasn't company.

Dinner definition: the main meal of the day, whether eaten in the evening or about noon

I grew up in a South Philly family... sandwich in a long roll was and still is...a hoagie - never heard of a sub until I grew up.

Evening meal is supper if in the kitchen, dinner if in the dining room.

The underground room in a house was the cellar, now most call it a basement

Garbage is and was discarded food - trash is everything else.

The long, multiple person upholstered was a couch, now a sofa.

The sitting room on the main floor is the "living room".

What used to be called a Handbag is now more commonly a "bag".

The sandy land area that the Atlantic ocean abuts always was and is "the shore".

DAVENPORT . . !!!!!!!
That's what grandma and mom called it!
NOT divan! DAVENPORT! llol

I called it that too, when I was growing up.
now it's couch or sofa

We used to call soda pop mineral.

We call it dinner now, but I called it supper when I was a kid.

Sub sandwich

Purse

Living room

Basement

Couch

Bathroom

We called faucets "spickets," and a burner on the stove we called "the eye of the stove."

When I was growing up, we always had breakfast, dinner, and supper. When I went to college, it was hard to get used to calling dinner lunch and supper dinner.

The multi-seat furniture piece was a davenport.

Garbage was kitchen scraps, and we fed them to the pigs after supper, so there wasn't a special container other than the pan my mother used to peel potatoes in.

The container for other thrown-away stuff was called a waste-paper basket.

The area under the house was a cellar, but it was pretty cellar-like, even though it did have windows. Half of it had a dirt floor.

Growing up, we called our refrigerator the "ice box". Now it is "the fridge" or refrigerator -- my MIL still calls it a "Frigidaire".

Soda is soda (or brand name), not "pop".

Hot sandwiches on rolls were heros (as in Meatball Hero), but where I live now, they are subs. So are cold sandwiches on rolls.

Growing up, we played records on the hi-fi (long i on both). Then it was a stereo.

At home, we used a "bathroom" - in school, it was the "lavatory"

Oh - and next door, we could go downstairs (below ground-level but with windows) to play in the "rumpus room"... in my house we played downstairs in th basement.

The only thing different that I can add from Minnesota is ....
We never go to the beach or the seaahore, we go to the LAKE.

Barbara, all the ones that you listed sound like the difference between my Mom, who grew up in Mass. and moved to Minn, and everyone else around here.

Then-living room, now living room.

Then-supper, except on Sundays it was mid-day and it was Dinner.

Then-never had or saw a sandwich on a long bun; now a sub,

Then-a pocketbook; now I use a fanny pack, but I still use pocketbook for a pocketbook.

Then-I don't remember if we had a parlor, but I knew the term; now living room.

Then-basement, which had the furnace in it; now a rec room and most recently a game room, or media room.

Then-Davenport, or Settee; now couch.

Just a note:I'm glad to see several of you know the difference between garbage and trash. LOL

Sue

I have always called it "dinner".
Growing up, my parents called a sofa a davenport. Davenport is actually an Iowa term. I call it a sofa, DS calls it a couch.
Living room or front room is the living space. I also have a back room that serves as a dining/computer room but I call it the family room.
I have always had a purse.
In CA I drank soda and now I drink "pop" because it is such a funny name.
Multi-story parking garages are called "ramps" in Iowa.

My grandma always called her purse her pocketbook. Our "living room" was called the front room.

We eat dinner, but here in the south it is indeed referred to as supper.

Trish

hayjud_mn, I grew up in Mass too, that's probably why they are the same as you mom calls.

Then - Now

Chesterfield - Couch
Front Room - Living room
Rumpus Room - Family room

At home we had breakfast, dinner, supper. Lunch was what we carried to school in a paper sack.

If our bread was store bought in a loaf it was called light bread. If it was long-shaped it was a hot dog bun.

Grandma carried a pocketbook, Mother a purse.

We were too poor to have anything other than rocking chairs and straight back chairs, so I would have been at a loss as to what was a sofa, divan or couch.

Our outhouse was called a toilet. When I went to town school the girls restroom was referred to as the basement. Why? I do not know as it was on ground level.

My country grandmother called the formal room the fur room her way of implying it was the far room at the front of the house. I thought she meant that it had fur in it, butI never could find the fur.

What do you call the evening meal? DINNER (Breakfast, lunch and dinner)

A sandwich in a long bun: growing up, a grinder, here a sub. SANDWICH

What a woman carries her stuff around in: growing up, a pocketbook, here, a purse. POCKETBOOK or HANDBAG

The room where company sits: growing up, the parlor, here, the livingroom. LIVING ROOM

The level of your home below ground: growing up, the cellar, here, the basement. BASEMENT

My grandmother used to call garbage (not trash) swill. She also called the couch a divan. GARBAGE COUCH

Carol - Native LI, NYer

My parents were immigrants and my dad grew up in Michigan so I've heard it all. LOL I agree with someone who said some things are generational also. Born and raised in California I heard:

dinner

poor boy as a child, now it's a sub

Dad called it a pocketbook,even his wallet
Mom and I called it a purse

Living room (DH's mother had a "front room")

In the city the garage was called the basement,in the 'burbs we has an attached garage, Grandparent's house had a cellar

garbage came from the house, trash came from elsewhere

today we have a sofa, my parents had a couch or a Chesterfield

I grew up with a vacuum cleaner, DH's mom called it a sweeper

A pocket book was a small bag shaped purse that a man used to carry his change and some folding money in his pants pocket.

women carried purses and handbags.

If you lived on a farm, it was breakfast, dinner, and supper; If you lived in the city, it was breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

A couch was a piece of furniture for sitting; A davenport could be used as a couch, but also folded out to make a bed.

A cellar (under the house) had an opening with stair steps to the outside, i.e., cellar door through which large objects could be moved through, and notable, coal for the furnace. A basement had no doors to the outside unless it was an exposed basement with patio doors.

A cellar might not have an above-ground building associated with it, as in "root cellar' or "storm cellar".

A cistern was an in-ground, lined catch basin for holding rain water collected from the roof. It was the supply of "soft" water. Water softners were not used; Well water was used as is from the well head.

A school year was 8 months long from September through April.

A "single tree" and "double tree" were parts of a hitch for horses.

A "switch" was a long slender and somewhat flexible piece of wood used to help control cattle when "bringing the cows home". Often, it was a small tree branch or sprout.

A mother might admonish a child by saying, "If you don't behave, I'll take a switch to you."

After you brought the cows home, you could fit the switch with a string, hook and bobber on the end and have a fishing pole.

"Your barn door is open." meant that yout pants fly was open.

"Coal oil" was kerosene. Before oil wells, kerosene was made from coal.

A cell is a single unit that can supply electrical current; A battery is a collection of cells when assemblied in series can supply a volage that is a multiple of the voltage of individual cells. In today's spoken language, battery and cells are erroneously used interchangably, e.g., flash light batteries when these may be cells instead.

Monica being from the same area I agree with the majority of your selections but have a few diferences:

We use couch and sofa interchangeably. Divan? please!!!!

My Mom and now my wife always used 'pocketbook' and nothing else.

jemdandy clarified the celler/basement issue well. As far as dinner, the farm life, "dinner" was a formal meal and since my parents came from a (mostly Scandinavian & German descent) farm background, our meals were normally breakfast, lunch and supper. On the farms, "Sunday Dinner" was a fancy meal usually right after church. Often special guests would be invited. Occasionally the minister, close friends, relatives were common guests. Sunday being the day of rest and in this farm area you were NOT to be working on Sunday. Often you'd go for a drive, and you'd see people and it was called "visiting". Ya, it was a cold Sunday and we stopped at Bert & Edna's a while, they served us dinner and they had their neighbors over and we played some cards and visited and when it started to get dark it started snowing so we headed home.

Growing up, the terminology was the same but we didn't get into the formal Sunday meals too often, however, holiday meals were still more formal and therefore it was "Thanksgiving Dinner", "Christmas Dinner", etc. And, as in old world ways, you would "dress for dinner" usually. Being dressed up from church or if entertaining or being a guest, you were usually in more of the Sunday, go-to-meetin'" attire.

As people were getting more rooms in houses as I was growing up, "family room" was added to the lingo.

Growing up we used "couch" for what is properly called a "sofa". A couch has only one arm. Now I have a futon! Hide-a-bed would occasionally be used and that was a pullout bed in a sofa. Sofabed or studio couch had the back fold down to make a bed similar to how a futon works now.

My aunt and uncle had a "cottage" on the lake, we had a "cabin". My Texican relatives called it a lake house.

When people try to sell junk, it can be called a garage sale (whether or not it's in the garage), or rummage sale. Rarely around here is it called a yard sale and out east it's a tag sale.

Here, the soft drinks are called pop. In Texas my uncle's generation called it "soda water" and (his daughter's) my cousin's generation, it's Cokes. Y'all care for a Coke? What kind would ya lock? (And this was before even Diet Coke came on the market.) Root beer, orange, grape, etc were all "Cokes". People I know out east and in the southwest called it soda. Around here, "soda" involves ice cream and pop.

It was interesting when representatives from around the country had a meeting in Charlotte NC the one time. Talk about needing translators! Most of the time we figured out what the others were say but when the guy from Boston wanted to find a "bubbla", it took a while. Everyone else knew it as a drinking fountain or water fountain. This guy's accent put Cliff Claven to shame! But even with his dialect, we all knew when he suggested we "hova be-ah".

Yes times change too. I still remember my uncle commenting on the societal changes. "Used to be you'd eat in the house and go out to sh*t, now you sh*t in the house and go out to eat!

Oh, and the infamous submarine sandwich and variations, don't forget po'boy, hero, gyro, cuban, hoagie and Dagwood.

Now would you like a paper or plastic bag? Or would you prefer a sack? To my dad it was a "package".

Here a loose meat type of sandwich is called a Sloppy Joe, nicknamed sloppys. Not far south of us, they call them maid-rites. One gal I know grew up calling them scrambled hamburgers.

Faucet/spigot? Kitty-corner, caddy-corner, catty-corner? Skillet, fry/frying pan, spider? Pit or seed? Firefly or lightning bug? Pail or bucket? Tennis shoe or sneaker? Step, stoop or porch? Cornbread, johnnycake or journeycake? Duck duck gray duck or duck duck goose? Grocery cart, shopping cart or a buggy?

And while at the cabin you probably have a dock. Others use a pier.

Thanks, Liz.

Here a loose meat type of sandwich is called a Sloppy Joe, nicknamed sloppys. Not far south of us, they call them maid-rites. One gal I know grew up calling them scrambled hamburgers.

Taco Bell used to have Bell Beefers. They no longer have them but Taco Bravo does. Only they call theirs a Chili Burger. LOL