Apologies, my gce ‘O’ Level in chemistry was too many years ago
Box or Basket?
I love this thread
It’s a boxy basket, or a baskety box
What about basket cases? I know a few of those
Cup / glass: that’s equally contentious… there used to be a trend for tea/coffee cups made of glass but in a conventional cup shape. I don’t think we referred to them as glasses. When tea was served in glass - such as in Viennese bakeries - it would be in a ‘glass shaped’ glass in a holder with a handle and thus shaped more like a cup… is the handle the key, perhaps?
But then the thick-walled vessel with a handle, used for a pint of beer (seen rather less these days) is surely a glass rather than cup? Or is it a mug? In some parts of the UK I’ve heard it referred to as a jug. The smooth, slightly tapered, thin walled alternative (sometimes termed a ‘sleeve’ where I come from) could not be anything but a glass, could it? Or maybe it’s a beaker…
re. << are plastic bags plastic? >>
I believe that, strictly speaking, ‘plastic’ is an adjective describing a state of being (somewhere between liquid and solid) and that the generalised name for that those kinds of materials we think of as plastic is “plastics” - but if you try that in general usage folks will just assume it’s a spelling mistake.
From my world, I used to rail at the misuse of the term ‘logo’ (abbr. for logotype) which has been misappropriated to mean any kind of trademark - and is now so entrenched that I’ve given up arguing about it. Mostly…