Wayland wrote:
> On Sat, 05 Aug 2006 14:11:55 GMT, Wayland >
> wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 05 Aug 2006 03:03:14 GMT, The Duct Tape Avenger
> > wrote:
> >
> >>Lars Eighner wrote:
> >>> In our last episode,
> >>> >,
> >>> the lovely and talented Wayland
> >>> broadcast on alt.usage.english:
> >>>
> >>>> So the Super Wal-Mart near me has "Value Added" French Bread
> >>(snip)
> >>>
> >>> You make sandwiches from baguettes? The horror! The horror!
> >>
> >>It's actually Italian bread, not French.
> >
> >Eh, I knew it was one of those European counties.
>
> I just made a sandwich, it says French on the bag.


I just took a look at the entry "French bread" in several online
dictionaries. None of them appears to cover what is traditionally
called "French bread" in the US. In particular, the dictionary
definitions refer to a crisp crust, but as it is traditionally made in
the US, French bread has a crust which is hardly more crisp than that
of an ordinary American loaf of bread.

The definition at www.infoplease.com , from the _Random House
Unabridged Dictionary,_ comes closest to the US version of French
bread:

From
http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0449319.html


"a yeast-raised bread made of dough containing water and distinguished
by its thick, well-browned crust, usually made in long, slender,
tapered loaves."


Some of my French friends have indeed said that what is called "French
bread" in the US is closer to Italian bread than it is to the French
baguette. I once asked a native speaker of Swiss French what he thought
of the French bread sold in the US--this was several years ago and
there was no question that I was referring to the American-made
product. He said it was "infect"--French for "vile."


--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com