Oatmeal, Porridge, and What the Words Actually Mean
Oatmeal is ground oats, and in America the cooked dish made from them. Britain calls the dish porridge and keeps oatmeal for the raw ingredient.
Oatmeal is oats ground or cut into meal. Across the Atlantic the word does different work: Americans say oatmeal for the cooked breakfast, while British speakers call that porridge and reserve oatmeal for the dry ingredient. The cut, not the cooking, decides the texture: steel-cut oats stay chewy, rolled oats go soft.
- Ground or cut oats. *Coarse oatmeal.*
- Cooked oat porridge (American). *A bowl of oatmeal.*
- A pale beige colour. *An oatmeal jumper.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | oatmeal | Fine oatmeal. |
| Related | porridge | A pan of porridge. |
| Related | rolled oats | Rolled oats. |
| Related | steel-cut | Steel-cut oats. |
| Adjective | oatmeal | Oatmeal coloured. |
How it is used in a sentence
- He has oatmeal every morning.American: the cooked dish.
- Use medium oatmeal for the biscuits.British: the ingredient, sold by grade.
- Steel-cut oats take longer to cook.Around twenty minutes rather than five.
Kinds of oats
- Groats — the whole hulled grain
- Steel-cut — groats chopped into pieces
- Rolled — steamed and flattened, cook quickly
- Instant — rolled thinner and precooked
- Oatmeal — ground to fine, medium or coarse
A compound of *oat*, Old English *ate*, and *meal*, meaning ground grain — a different word from the meal you eat, which comes from a root meaning a measured time.
Oatmeal or porridge?
In Britain porridge is the cooked dish and oatmeal the raw ground grain. In America oatmeal covers both.
Are the two *meals* related?
No. Meal meaning ground grain is Old English *melu*. Meal meaning a sitting to eat comes from *mæl*, a measure or appointed time.