Why Don’t We Call the Washer the Clothes-Washer When We Call the Dish-Washing Machine the Dishwasher?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi.

This is Will calling from Lexington, Kentucky, and I had a question about washing machines and dishwashers.

Yeah, sure. We’ll get the repair guides out and we’ll get that sorted.

Actually, it’s a bit of a more of a nomenclature question.

So before we moved into the new house that we have here, we did not have one of the automatic dishwashing machines. We were just doing things by hand.

So I was calling it the washing machine for a while, which apparently is reserved for the clothes washing machine.

So I was just curious, two things. One, why does the clothes washing machine get the official moniker of washing machine, whereas the dishwasher has the specific to it? And why can’t you call the washing machine the clothes washing machine?

Right, because it’s usually either the washer or the washing machine. And very rarely do you throw in the word clothes or laundry when you’re talking about the device.

I think we can sort some of this out for you.

All right.

More importantly, to settle a bit of a disagreement that I may have had with my girlfriend here, is it appropriate to call the clothes washing machine or is that not allowed?

Oh.

Are you both from Kentucky?

No, we’re both from Ohio originally. We’ve been in Kentucky about two months now, so we haven’t quite picked up the way that they speak here, but we both move around quite a bit.

The guy spent some time in Los Angeles. She spent some time in Japan, of all places.

Let’s set that second part aside for now. Martha and I do like to interfere with marriages as much as we can.

It was a friendly dispute, for sure. Let’s handle the linguistic stuff first.

So the first thing you’ve got to understand is that the machine, the dishwashing machine, replaced people who were already known as dishwashers. So we call the dishwashing machine the dishwasher because the people who used to do the job are also known as dishwashers.

There’s a clear, like, very long separation between the people dishwasher and the machine dishwasher. And actually, you can see this happen with the word computer.

We have this device on our desk now called the computer. The people who used to do that kind of really complicated math were also known as computers.

So this happens again and again in English where the machine that takes over the human job then gets the human name. So that’s part of the reason why.

That’s interesting.

Yeah, it’s part of the reason why the dishwasher is called the dishwasher.

The other thing is that in washing machine, that word washing, referring to the task of cleaning clothes or doing the laundry, is centuries old, centuries older than any other kind of, how should I put this, lexicalized form of any word related to washing.

Like we have long needed to launder our clothes, and we have called them the washing or the laundry for a very long time.

So washing to mean washing clothes has been ensconced and specialized, that’s the word a linguist might use, specializes this one particular kind of washing since the 1400s.

Wow.

Even now, because washing, when you say I’m going to do the washing, most people probably would assume that you were, in the U.S. anyway, would assume that you were talking about the laundry.

In the U.K., they might actually think that you meant the dishes, which is really interesting.

Oh, that is interesting.

And I think the other thing that’s going on here, too, is that dishwashers weren’t part of the everyday household in this country until the 50s or so. And washing machines were a little earlier.

Well, the word dishwasher, meaning machine dishwasher, dates to the 1860s.

Right, right.

But, I mean, in somebody’s home.

Right, everyday use of it.

Yeah, you had industrial dishwashers or commercial dishwashers.

Right.

So really we’re just talking kind of an order of events here, which kind of use became more common sooner than the other ones. It kind of takes the mantle as the definitive meaning for that word.

And you find that again and again in English where something kind of just wins out. And so, for example, in the U.S., football won out as the meaning for American football.

And in the rest of the world, football won out meaning soccer. And just they become the definitive meanings of football, although there have for centuries been many other kinds of football.

But if you say football people in their mind, they think of the one specific more common kind, the ur form of football.

The ur form.

Yeah.

So have we preserved peace in your household?

I guess that’s the bigger question here.

I think so.

But are you able to call it a clothes washer, or is that just redundant?

Well, yeah, you can, but why? I mean, is it just out of pure cussedness?

Maybe to a small degree. I think the one who loads the laundry and presses the button gets to call it whatever they want.

So while you’re doing the laundry, you call it whatever you want. And while she’s doing the laundry, she calls it whatever she wants.

That sounds just fine.

All right.

Take care, William.

Thanks for your call.

All right.

Thank you.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

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