Amelia in Logan, Utah wondered whether her family’s Thanksgiving meal, served from a kitchen island, was buffet style or smorgasbord style. In everyday American English, a smorgasbord is essentially a kind of buffet, a spread of small dishes that diners serve themselves from. The Swedish original was more structured, with courses that might begin with fish, then bread, butter, cheese, and eggs, followed by pickled vegetables and hot dishes. The word comes from Swedish words meaning bread-and-butter and table. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “In American English, “Smorgasbord” Usually Refers to a Self-Serve “Buffet””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Martha.
Hi, who’s this?
This is Amelia Gutke from Logan, Utah.
Hi, Amelia. How are you doing?
I am great. I am so excited to be on your show today.
And we’re excited to have you.
Yeah.
Well, I have a little story.
I was driving with my mother-in-law to Las Vegas from northern Utah for Thanksgiving, and I introduced her to the show.
And when we got to Las Vegas, we started to prepare the meal for Thanksgiving.
And I asked if we were going to be serving it buffet style.
So she asked, or are we having it smorgasbord style?
And I said, hey, that’s a great question for A Way with Words.
Aha.
So what kind of meal did you serve?
Well, I guess to me, it was buffet.
It was just the island in the kitchen piled with food.
With different dishes.
So to her it was a smorgasbord, and to me it was buffet.
-huh.
So you didn’t really see a difference between smorgasbord and buffet, and it’s a self-serve situation, right?
Right, where all the food is just laid out before you, and you just dish yourself up.
Well, you know, the easiest thing to say here, that a smorgasbord is simply a type of buffet.
Oh, it is?
Yeah, yeah.
Of course, originally a smorgasbord was a little more complicated than that.
In the Scandinavian tradition, there was an order to the courses.
Like you would start with fish and then the bread and butter and cheese and eggs and then the pickled vegetables and then the hot foods.
And also, smorgasbord could either be the hors d’oeuvres or it could be the main meal.
But we’ve borrowed the term into English.
And as a result, we’ve kind of made it a little more general.
And now it just generally means a lot of small dishes from which you serve yourself a meal.
Right?
Okay.
So you are saying that it’s basically the same thing or not?
Yes, it is.
I think in this country, yeah.
Yes, in this country it is.
And practical American usage is the same thing, and it’s simply a word choice.
Okay, and then where did you say the word that comes from originally?
Oh, it’s Swedish.
Oh, that’s what I figured.
It sounded Swedish chef-ish.
Or Swedish chef-ish.
Well, you know, Jim Henson, when he did The Swedish Chef, was not really speaking Swedish.
Oh, he was?
No.
No, he actually got funny letters from very serious Swedes who were wondering why he was purporting to speak Swedish or it wasn’t.
-oh.
But anyway, that’s a side note.
Interestingly, smorgasbord is Swedish.
It comes from two words, smorgas, of course I’m getting the pronunciation wrong, which means a slice of bread and butter plus board, meaning table.
Okay.
Cool?
Yeah, that’s cool.
Did it work?
All right, well, thank you, Amelia, for your call.
Well, I just have to tell you that I come from a big family.
There are ten of us.
And your show has brought a lot of fun conversation into our family.
We love your show.
Oh, terrific.
Oh, thank you.
That’s very nice.
Ten of you.
I’m jealous.
I only have five kids in my family.
Well, don’t be too jealous.
It’s a little crazy.
All right.
Well, best of luck to you.
Okay, thank you.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Yeah, they have to have a smorgasbord, a really long table with that many kids.
Smorgasbord, skimed, skimed, skimed, skimed, skimed, skimed.
Well, if you’d like to speak Swedish with Grant, give us a call.
The number is 1-877-929-9673.
Or you can always email your questions to words@waywordradio.org.
