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May 12, 2005

Vishy's Indian English Dictionary: parcel

parcel. /PAR·sell/. To specify that an item, usually food, would be taken away from the place of sale, rather than consumed there. As in

"What do you want?"
"Chicken Tikka Masala and Garlic Naan parcel."

In the U.S. this exchange would be something like

"What would you like?"
"One order of Chicken Tikka Masala and a Garlic Naan, to go."

Parcel, in its other sense, referring to a packaged item, also seems to have fallen out of use in the U.S. People generally use 'package'. Parcel, in India, is used for both a mailed package as well as to get food to go (in a package)

Posted by Vishy at May 12, 2005 09:36 PM

Comments

I've never heard "parcel" used that way -- perhaps it's a Bombay thing.

Posted by: Punyashloka Biswal at May 23, 2005 10:09 PM