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Entirely disagree. That would be to prejudice one cultural history over against another. As things stand, any of us can type in the word and be led straight to a balanced explanation of where we need to go for which meaning. --
Doric Loon12:54, 2 December 2005 (UTC)reply
Scottish usage
I lived in Scotland for a few years, and have several Scottish friends. I never heard any Scot call a Brassica rapa a "swede": the only time I ever heard or saw the phrase in Scotland was in an Edinburgh branch of
Tesco's, where the swedes/yellow turnips/rutabagas were labelled "swede turnips" (presmably because Tesco's is an English supermarket). The
Rutabaga page says the Scots call B. rapa "white turnips". —
Franey12:45, 2 December 2005 (UTC)reply
Well, I think I do, but I can't remember ever actually eating one, so maybe I've just picked it up wrongly. What I do know for certain (and you aren't arguing this point, I know) is that this article is right about what Scots mean by turnip. --
Doric Loon15:02, 2 December 2005 (UTC)reply
Yeah, I prefer the Scots usage: "turnip" is a much cooler word than "swede", and swedes (in the southern English sense) are bigger, cheaper, tastier, and much more "turnipy"-looking than their paler cousins. —
Franey16:32, 2 December 2005 (UTC).reply
I'm Scottish - we used to eat swedes (ie white turnips) a lot when I was younger. We always called them swedes and so did my mother, who would have been 83 if she were still alive. You're right, though, Doric Loon, you don't see them in the shops in Scotland v. often these days. I would only ever use them for soup though - "proper" neeps taste much better when mashed. --
Bulgy's Quine19:06, 2 December 2005 (UTC)reply
I too am Scottish, and as I was growing up called white turnips, turnips. However, we were always being reprimanded for this, as we were told that their real name was swede and that turnips were for pigs. --
Bob22:36, 15 December 2005 (UTC)reply
I suspect you were actually eating yellow turnip when you were younger - and so were correct in calling them Swede - some of them are fairly pale in colour. It is unlikely that white turnip were widely available in Scotland 20 years ago. I think it is incorrect to say anybody referred to white turnip as swede (except by mistake or ignorance). I would like to see the suggestion that Scots refer to white turnip as Swede deleted - I think this idea is gathering momentum solely due to this wikipedia article. --
Tattieman2 (
talk)
14:42, 13 November 2011 (UTC)reply
When I was a student I worked in Safeway. We had to do a course in identifying vegetables. We got to the turnips, and since I was always one to call a turnip a turnip, that is what I said it was. I got repremanded by my supervisor for not calling it a swede. For a while, I made a determined effort to complain to supermarkets who call a turnip a swede. I've never seen a swede that I wouldn't call a turnip --
Colin Angus Mackay16:29, 26 December 2005 (UTC)reply
I'm Scottish but have lived in England for the majority of my life. In my (wholly Scottish) family, the English tendency to sub-divide turnips was often held up as an example of the strange and arcane peculiarity of southerners; it is certainly not the case that the English always invert the Scottish terms therefore, in my experience. Hopefully wikipedia can make a profound contribution to this serious issue. Scotland: Where men are men and turnips are turnips.Badgerpatrol18:22, 30 December 2005 (UTC)reply
The large one (Swede in RP) is called a "neep" in Scotland, but the small one (rapa) is called a "tumshie" traditionally. Swedes are proper "neeps". The name derives from Old Norse, not Old English in this case.--
MacRusgail16:02, 10 September 2006 (UTC)reply
I suggest the word Tumshie in Scotland also refers to the large yellow turnip. Is it possible that people who do not know white turnip and do not use the word tumshie have mistakenly matched them up? --
Tattieman2 (
talk)
14:42, 13 November 2011 (UTC)reply
All seems very confusing, but I don't think ANYONE can define what the the things are called in Scotland because it would seem that even Scottish people disagree. In my mind a 'turnip' AKA 'swede' AKA 'neep' is the big yellow/purple one and the small white one is called a 'white turnip', not that you ever really see them. I would have also said that a 'tumshie' was a yellow/purple turnip, but it the kind of word that I have only ever seen in Oor Wullie anyway! Now, I would argue with anyone who says that a white turnip should be called a swede. HOWEVER the fact that some people DO call it a swede means that we are not really going to get anywhere with a useful disambiguation page!
In my opinion, in Scotland the Yellow Turnip is best know as the neep or turnip, also known as the tumshie, and occasionally knows as the Swede. The White Turnip is not well known in Scotland, but it may be known as Milan Turnip, White Turnip, neep, wee neep. It is never known as a Swede. This is my first day Wikipedia editing (inspired by this article) so will not change the main article but would appreciate feedback.--
Tattieman2 (
talk)
14:52, 13 November 2011 (UTC)reply
"Neep" is not a shortening of the English word "turnip", although the last syllable of "turnip" is cognate. The term derives from Old Norse. It is a common mistake to derive certain forms, e.g. "drucken" from corruptions of English ("drunken") without realising they derive from another language.--
MacRusgail16:07, 10 September 2006 (UTC)reply
You're correct that "neep" is not a shortening of "turnip". But the OED says that Old English naep came directly from Latin nāpus, and the Norse came from Old English. --
ABehrens (
talk)
02:46, 11 April 2021 (UTC)reply
Canada
I removed the row for "Canada (Atlantic Provinces and Ontario)", which had an entry under B. Napus that says "turnip" and nothing else. This appears completely incorrect by my own experience, so without a citation I think it was worthless.
In my own experience in Southern Ontario, supermarkets label B. Rapa Rapa as "turnips" and B. Napus as "rutabaga". I do find that people who seldom eat either will sometimes refer to both of them as "turnips". I am unfamiliar with Pachyrhizus (the name "yam" is generally given to either
yams or sometimes
sweet potatoes).
Obviously my own experience isn't a valid citation, either. I'm just pointing out that at face value the information is wrong, so was not worth keeping.
-
Rainwarrior (
talk)
17:35, 28 January 2015 (UTC)reply
The preferred name for "Brassica napus or B. napobrassica" seems to be Brassica napus subsp. rapifera per the "Taxon identifiers" links in
rutabaga
The attempt to reduce the number of rows is misguided as it invites ridiculous inferences. I don't believe South Yorkshire knows much about jicama, and I've never heard anyone in Ireland say "neep", unless recounting a recent trip to Scotland.
It may be that Scots use "swede" for white turnip, but in Ireland I've only ever heard it as a less-common synonym for the [yellow] turnip
Does nobody in SE Asia ever speak of Brassicas? Or is the "also called" row meant to be part of the same row?
The name Turnip (terminology) should be Turnip (word) or Terminology of turnips
As per the title of the section, the word "turnip" in Hong Kong refers to a
daikon (Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus).[1] That means we have to add another column to the table.
I don't know if I've ever seen any of B. rapa rapa or P. erosus in Hong Kong, so I don't know what either of them are called here, but I think I've seen B. napus as both "swede" and "rutabaga".
From personal experience, the word "turnip" may be falling out of use in favour of "white radish", but I can't provide any hard evidence for this.
Edderiofer (
talk)
10:10, 17 February 2021 (UTC)reply
^Cummings, Patrick J., and Hans-Georg Wolf. A Dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from the Fragrant Harbor (p. 178). 1st ed., Hong Kong University Press, 2011.