Coffee Pot vs. Coffee Maker

Office workers in Richmond, Virginia, are having a dispute: Is the appliance that makes the coffee a coffee pot or a coffee maker? This is a classic case of synecdoche, where a single part—like the pot that holds the hot coffee—is used to refer to the whole object. This is part of a complete episode.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 comment
  • For more on Mr. Coffee (more historically, but with some attention to language), check out Rebecca Shrum’s “Selling Mr. Coffee: Design, Gender, and the Branding of a Kitchen Appliance” from _WInterthur Portfolio_ (Winter 2012): 271-98.

More from this show

Starnated Fool

Rosalind from Montgomery, Alabama, says her mother used to scold her for acting like a starnadle fool. The more common version of this term is starnated fool, a term that appears particular to Black English, and appears in the work of such writers...