Well, not exactly surprising, but 90% of poll respondents reckoned they would normally call then cans, not tins. I stand by my initial view that, for anyone under retirement age, to call beer cans “tins” is a deliberate, pejorative affectation. Tins are for shoe polish.
I wonder what the one person who voted “Something Else” calls them...
Comments, especially on older posts, may require prior approval by the blog owner. See here for details of my comment policy.
Please register an account to comment. Unregistered comments will generally be rejected unless I recognise the author. If you want to comment using an unregistered ID, you will need to tell me something about yourself.
We called them tinnies in the army !
ReplyDeleteLikewise in Australia they are commonly referred to as 'tinnies'.
ReplyDeleteAffectation I can understand, as 'tin' was the British term which has largely been supplanted by what was originally an Americanism, 'can'.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the basis for pejorative? Other than shoe polish?
Now, you're onto one of my 'specialist' subjects!
ReplyDeleteThey were originally called Tin Cans, so we abbreviated them to Tins but the Americans, perversely as usual, chose Can as their shortening of the description (and even more perversely the Aussies went for a longer 'abbreviation' - Tinny!)
In the States, almost all drinks cans are made of Aluminium (or Aluminum!) so they can't properly be called 'Tins'!
Over here, about 50% are Aluminium and 50% are tin-plated steel! As RedNev says, we've now adopted the American version for drinks, but (to me) it is still a Tin of Dog/Cat Food and a Tin of Beans! (and, no, that's not my dinner tonight - maybe in midweek though!!)
Clear as mud, I know...but you did ask!!
Nev, if you can't see why it's pejorative I assume you are one of those people who refers to "tinned beer". At any rate that's certainly how that form of words comes across to most people (and why it will never, ever appear in a CAMRA mag I edit).
ReplyDeleteMudge - the solitary respondent who uses another term might have been influemced by one USA craft brewer which prefers the trem "nano-keg".
something else? "tubes of joy"
ReplyDeleteOr maybe "buckets of chemical piss".
ReplyDeleteSurely the accepted term is "chemical fizz"?
ReplyDeleteThe heading should have been: 'Tinned' binned.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the poster who recalled the army term. It was, and is, tinnies for me too. I now live in the southerly hemispherical region of the earth, where the indigs also call 'em tinnies.
ReplyDelete> I wonder what the one person who voted “Something Else” calls them…
ReplyDeleteBoks
Tin of beans, Can of lager. But both packaged in a cannery.
ReplyDelete