So, if I look up cookie in the dictionary over there -->, it gives me both "kekso" and "biskvito"; "kekso" retranslates to "biscuit, cookie", and "biskvito" retranslates to "cookie, biscuit"! As any English speaker knows, a "biscuit" can be a few different things, depending on where you are. So, when the dictionary says "biscuit", what kind of biscuit is it referring to? And which is the more common term for what we would call a "cookie"?

And ReVo says that "biskvito" is also a cracker. I know that in Spanish, the word "galleta" means both cookie and cracker. Does "biskvito" also have both meanings, and what about the kind of biscuit that is less flat, that one can split and put butter on?

Dankon!

Christa627:So, if I look up cookie in the dictionary over there -->, it gives me both "kekso" and "biskvito"; "kekso" retranslates to "biscuit, cookie", and "biskvito" retranslates to "cookie, biscuit"! As any English speaker knows, a "biscuit" can be a few different things, depending on where you are. So, when the dictionary says "biscuit", what kind of biscuit is it referring to? And which is the more common term for what we would call a "cookie"?

And ReVo says that "biskvito" is also a cracker. I know that in Spanish, the word "galleta" means both cookie and cracker. Does "biskvito" also have both meanings, and what about the kind of biscuit that is less flat, that one can split and put butter on?

Dankon!

Any English speaker knows that "the kind of biscuit which is less flat, that one can split and put butter on" is called a "scone".
It is only speakers of American, which is not English but a closely related language, who have trouble with this

As for your wider question, there was an earlier thread covering the same topic if you can find it.
After much discussion the consensus seemed to be that there was no way these concepts could be expressed non-ambiguously in Esperanto.

Americans love their sweets, hence why they have to make the distinctions among these words. Can I eat it? Ok, good, give it to me *nom, nom, nom* #cookiemonster

I looked for the thread using "biskvito" and "biscuit cookie" search phrases, but didn't find it.

Well the dictionary over there -->
is the only Esperanto/English one I have. If I look up venki in it, I get "to defeat, to win over, to conquer". Well, my understanding of the verb to win over means to bring someone over to your side, which does not seem very compatible with conquering and defeating. A second opinion might be useful and maybe another dictionary would be more comprehensive and detailed. Can anybody recommend another dictionary, either paper or electronic?

kekso is this, and biskvito is this.

Unfortunately Vikipedio uses biskvito for kekso and biskoto for biskvito (alluding to a change in use), but as biskvit' is a Fundamental root no one has the right to change its meaning or to use a synonymic root, unless officialized by the Akademio de Esperanto.

Bemused:
Any English speaker knows that "the kind of biscuit which is less flat, that one can split and put butter on" is called a "scone".
It is only speakers of American, which is not English but a closely related language, who have trouble with this

To think I've been eating "scones and gravy" all this time and been calling it by the wrong name...

Names of foods are hard. They are so dependent on national background that even the Academy has a hard time on agreeing on official definitions for some of these "food words".

What a struggle we had in the lernu team, over what qualifies as a torto versus a kuko. We never did solve that. It makes me hesitate to call these things anything but a "dolcxajxo" because I am never sure which word will come to mind when I use my preferred word for a given thing!

I use "biskvito", myself, for cookies. An American biscuit -- I never talk about those in Esperanto. But I would probably call it a "bulko" (a roll) because it would call the right things to mind more than "biskvito" would. Though I noticed that lernu's picture dictionary labels an American-style biscuit as 'biskvito' (but the same dictionary marked what is clearly a muffin as 'bulketo' -- I call it a 'mufeno' myself, lernu's dictionary has it as a "taspano" (tas/pan/o, presumably))

Bemused:Any English speaker knows that "the kind of biscuit which is less flat, that one can split and put butter on" is called a "scone".
It is only speakers of American, which is not English but a closely related language, who have trouble with this

In American, a scone is like a biscuit, but sweet. Is it not necessarily sweet in real English? But the real question is, what is it in Esperanto?

erinja:Names of foods are hard. They are so dependent on national background that even the Academy has a hard time on agreeing on official definitions for some of these "food words".

Bother! I like food, and talking about food. Some time back I translated a brownie recipe, and had some difficulty figuring out how to say "Brownie"; I finally went with "Ĉokoladkuketo".

It seemed to me, from what I read, that a "torto" is a pie or a cake, and a "kuko" is more specifically a cake. But I am no expert on the topic. And now it seems that nobody is!

Don1980:Well the dictionary over there -->
is the only Esperanto/English one I have. If I look up venki in it, I get "to defeat, to win over, to conquer". Well, my understanding of the verb to win over means to bring someone over to your side, which does not seem very compatible with conquering and defeating. A second opinion might be useful and maybe another dictionary would be more comprehensive and detailed. Can anybody recommend another dictionary, either paper or electronic?

There's Reta Vortaro(ReVo); it has definitions only in Esperanto, but you can search for words in several different languages. Whether you'll get a result for any given English word or not is rather hit-and-miss, but it's worth a shot.

There is also Vikia Vortaro (ViVo); it's not one dictionary, but is rather a tool for searching in several dictionaries at once, including ReVo and the Lernu one.

ESPDIC; only En-Eo and Eo-En.

I did a Google search for "Esperanta angla vortaro" and found some results that look promising; maybe you should try that.

Christa627:

Don1980:Well the dictionary over there -->
is the only Esperanto/English one I have. If I look up venki in it, I get "to defeat, to win over, to conquer". Well, my understanding of the verb to win over means to bring someone over to your side, which does not seem very compatible with conquering and defeating. A second opinion might be useful and maybe another dictionary would be more comprehensive and detailed. Can anybody recommend another dictionary, either paper or electronic?

There's Reta Vortaro(ReVo); it has definitions only in Esperanto, but you can search for words in several different languages. Whether you'll get a result for any given English word or not is rather hit-and-miss, but it's worth a shot.

There is also Vikia Vortaro (ViVo); it's not one dictionary, but is rather a tool for searching in several dictionaries at once, including ReVo and the Lernu one.

ESPDIC; only En-Eo and Eo-En.

I did a Google search for "Esperanta angla vortaro" and found some results that look promising; maybe you should try that.

Don't forget the Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto (PIV). I believe you use your Lernu credentials to log in there. It is an Eo-Eo dictionary. I usually use this whenever I have a word that is ambiguous when defined in English, and which is not included in the Eo-Eo lernu dictionary.