Yes. But I don’t know anyone who’s ever ordered half a head of lettuce. Where, at a diner? You buy a head of lettuce at the market, supermarket, grocery store. I’ve never seen half heads of lettuce being sold. (Once you halve the head of lettuce, the leaves turn brown.)
“Of shoes-and ships- and sealing wax
Of cabbages- and kings”
If you Google, you’ll find plenty of people use it (“head/s of cabbage”), strange or not. [/quote]
Oh, I’m sure that could well be true. What is strange for me may or may not be strange for people in other dialect zones. just pointing out what seems to me to be normal in my own area.
wiredforbooks.org/kids/beatrix/p9.htm
[quote=“Moreover, the American Heritage Dictionary”]
. . .
1.
a. Any of numerous cultivated forms of . . . cereal grass (Zea mays) bearing grains or kernels on large ears.
b. The grains or kernels of this plant . . . .
2. An ear of this plant.
3. Chiefly British. Any of various cereal plants or grains. . . .
4. A single grain of a cereal plant.
. . . .[/quote]
dictionary.reference.com/search?q=corn
I do have a couple of quibbles, though. Encarta’s examples should have read, “Thar air some corns,” and “Thar be some lettuces.” Of course, one can foreclose the issue entirely by the deft use of the pronoun them, viz., “Them air some fine corn, Cousin Jedediah.” Won’t work with lettuce, though. Jedediah ain’t never growed no lettuce.
jedemiah ain’t never growed no lettuce,
he don’t never growed no corns.
way on a-down in hikatumah
where he and his was borned
for it ain’t never rained in hikatumah
since jed’s great-grandpappy done and torn
dem frilly britches off of old king gee-orge
way back on an old vir-gin-ee morn
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[quote=“914”]
Yes. But I don’t know anyone who’s ever ordered half a head of lettuce. Where, at a diner? You buy a head of lettuce at the market, supermarket, grocery store. I’ve never seen half heads of lettuce being sold. (Once you halve the head of lettuce, the leaves turn brown.)[/quote] Where I come from there is refrigeration in supermarkets and gladwrap is used to stop the leaves browning. Half lettuces are commonly sold in supermarkets. I had to look up diner in a dictionary.
So order couldn’t possibly mean ask for?
Everything you wrote is new to me. You asked about North America and I am telling you about Vancouver. We don’t buy cut lettuces. If we buy, we buy the whole thing. I’ve never seen a half head of lettuce for sale though.
And a diner is like a truck stop. Greasy spoon. Where big hairy truck drivers in von Dutch hats stop in for a meal and read the papers in between their cross-country drives on their 18 wheelers.
Thanks. Then I’ve definitely been in a diner while I was in North America. Sorry for the stupid question, too.
It seems that “lettuces” and “corns” are British forms.
I think it is safe to conclude that in standard NA English we would use heads with lettuce and cabbage and reserve lettuces and cabbages for discussing different species.
Any North American disagree? Reading back it looks like all those saying cabbages and lettuces are speakers of the Queen’s English.
Lettuce, cabbage, corn, etc. are non-count nouns and must be preceded by a measure word. In this case, head, bag of, pound of lettuce all work; and ear, can, kernel, etc. for corn. The same goes for rice. You can have a bowl, box, pound, mouthful, grain of, etc., but never have “rices.”
At least in North America that’s how it’s done.
As for buying half-heads of lettuce, I’ve seen it done in only a few places. However, I’ve requested it before while in the produce aisle, and most stores will allow an employee of the produce department to slice it for you. Some of us just can;t eat it fast enough.
Corns would only refer to corns on the feet in both British English and American English. Milks and corns as singular food just seems weird.
Thanks Mianbao. I was thinking about how you’d go about asking for that reason.
Head of lettuce. OK Why ‘stick of butter’ in North American English? It seems weird to me.
because butter comes in stick-like shapes, portioned as 1/4 pound sticks (at least that’s how it’s done here)
Thanks again, Mianbao. I discovered a nice site with a huge number of measure unit definitions including stick, catty, jin and ping.