British people are not cannibals

There I was the other day, making another lesson for my BreakingNewsEnglish website and thinking I’d done another reasonable job. I uploaded the lesson and the very next morning received an amusing e-mail from one of my site’s visitors.

He was a little concerned about his students reading my news article and then asking him whether British people really did eat Indians (the people).

My lesson was on a recent protest against racism in Australia. It involved Australians visiting an Indian restaurant for lunch. My article said:

Australian expatriates all around the world also showed their support by having an Indian for lunch.

My site visitor wrote:

In American English, it sounds like someone is eating Indian people for their lunch. Did you mean ‘ate lunch with an Indian’ [person]?

Thinking about it logically, my visitor’s interpretation would seem correct. However that meaning (“…having an Indian for lunch”) sounds somewhat racist to my ears. I changed the article’s wording to reduce the chances of people thinking Brits took part in illegal eating practices.

Anyway, thinking about it a bit more, Brits can and do have more than an Indian for lunch. We can also have a Chinese or an Italian.

Curiously, I don’t think you would hear people in the UK saying: “I’m having a Thai for lunch” (Thai meal), but then I haven’t lived in the UK for 17 years. Neither would I expect to hear these:

“I’m having a Lebanese for lunch”

“I’m having a French for lunch”

“I’m having a Japanese for lunch”

“I’m having a Russian for lunch”

Why not?

I searched on the Internet but couldn’t find any answers. Did another bit of thinking about it logically and came up with this possible explanation:

Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants and takeaways were the only major overseas restaurants in Britain in the several decades following WWII. Over the years, people dropped the word “meal” from the phrase and “have an Indian” entered the national way of talking about going to restaurants for lunch/dinner. Other international cuisine only came to Britain in the past few decades and so it hasn’t been ingrained in our culinary-talk deep enough yet for ellipsis to take its course and “meal” to be dropped. Of course, I could be wrong…

Other uses:

In Britain, people also say “order an Indian / Chinese / Italian” (which could get you in trouble in other parts of the world) and “go out for an Indian / Chinese / Italian”.

One more thought

Do people say “I’m having / going out for / ordering an American (meal)”?

Curry picture from (jswching@flickr.com).