a stick of butter

[vil]

Dear teachers,

I read a sentence in a quiz which impress me with a new for me word "stick" in its role of a food container or measurement. Could you explain to me the origin of this term as well as tell me something more in detail.

I need another stick of butter for the cookies I'm making.

I know the classical definition of this term: a rectangular quarter pound block of butter or margarine.

This is for enough off my mental picture concerning the meaning of the term "stick". For example a small tin brunch of a tree, cinnamon sticks, a stick of dynamite,a stick salami, a stick of chocolate, a stick of gum, a stick of chalk etc.

Thank you in advance for your efforts.

Regards.

V.

[baqarah131]

This is tricky, but basically, "stick" is the unit of butter, dynamite, chalk, gum, etc., that is most usual.
This works for your examples (but "thin branch", not "tin brunch"). But I'd never say "stick of chocolate"; a piece of chocolate can be almost any size or shape. Also I don't like "stick salami," I suspect it's an error; I'd say "slice of salami."

regards
edward

[vil]

Hi bagarah131,

Thank you for your professional reply as well as for your exquisite corrections.
Indeed the replacement of the "bunch" with the "brunch"was an absurd, unforgivable blunder. Every rookie knows that brunch=a meal typically eaten late in the morning as a combination of a late breakfast and an early lunch and that "thin" is at very far remove from the "tin", which usually is a noun with the meaning "a container or box made from the tin, which on the other hand is a malleable, silvery metallic element.The same holds true in respect of "a stick of chocolate" There is a more proper expression "chocolate bar".

I will try to follow your estimated recommendations as well as to put them into practice.

Thank you for your attention.

Regards.

V.

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by vil

Dear teachers,

I read a sentence in a quiz which impress me with a new for me word "stick" in its role of a food container or measurement. Could you explain to me the origin of this term as well as tell me something more in detail.

I need another stick of butter for the cookies I'm making.

I know the classical definition of this term: a rectangular quarter pound block of butter or margarine.

This is for enough off my mental picture concerning the meaning of the term "stick". For example a small tin brunch of a tree, cinnamon sticks, a stick of dynamite,a stick salami, a stick of chocolate, a stick of gum, a stick of chalk etc.

Thank you in advance for your efforts.

Regards.

V.

In the US, butter is formed into long square-sectioned sticks: http://tinyurl.com/yr5ebb, unlike the way it is sold in Europe: http://tinyurl.com/2cvfho

As you will see from the image, "stick" is a fair description of it.

[vil]

Hi Anglika,

Thank you for your beneficial for me illustrations.

I'm sure, there are such favorable circumstances in the present forum, that everyday, everyone, who wished, might get knowledge of something new.

Thank you for your backing.

Regards.

V.