french fries

• French fries

Clipping of earlier French fried potatoes (1856) and French-fried potatoes, potatoes supposedly prepared in the French style.^[1] The idea that the preparation was specific to French cuisine was more notional than otherwise; more at Wikipedia. Compare also French dressing.

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french fries pl (normally plural, singular french fry)

1. (chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) Strips of deep-fried potatoes that have been frenched (cut into strips). [from 1903]

   French fries are our specialty.

   • 1903, Lillian Pettengill, Toilers of the Home, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 292:

     “What's the matter?” she asked quickly. “Haven't we had all the things before? Soup, chops, peas, French fries, and the fruit pudding–there wasn't a thing new.”

   • 1922, Robert C. Benchley, chapter XXII, in Love Conquers All, Henry Holt & Company, page 111:

     His first official act was to order dinner. “A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king.

   • 2022 March 25, Sandee LaMotte, “Dangerous chemicals found in food wrappers at major fast-food restaurants and grocery chains, report says”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Levels of PFAS indicators in the 200s were found in a Sweetgreen paper bag for focaccia, additional items at Cava, and in bags for french fries, cookies and Chicken McNuggets at McDonald’s.

In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, deep-fried potato strips are generally and traditionally called chips. However, with exposure to the "french fries" on the menus of US-origin fast food outlets, the term "french fries" (or just "fries") has for many people come to mean, specifically, "chips" of the type usually served in those outlets, which are generally thinner, and also possibly crispier, than the traditional British "chip".

• fries (North America); freedom fries (US, dated); French-fried potatoes (North America, dated)

• julienne fries; crinkle-cut fries; home fries, cottage fries; potato wedges, wedges