It's a sizy corner, and I just made a batch of raspberry thumbprint cookies, so c'mon in!

That makes sense, Theresa. Written Australian English is similar to British English. Can you bring the Ovaltine?

Sure I can Angie!!

I think your "polo neck" being what I call a turtleneck, is about the only thing I've not been 100% sure of!

Theresa, you better bring some Tim Tams and some nice hot Milo to drink through them! I'll bring the cake for Team Buttercream.

Now I am hungry

LOL Maya sure can!!

Is it bad to confess that I bought a packet of Caramel centered Tim Tams yesterday and have eaten the whole packet already?

Huh? We don't have a distinct word for 'pullover'? Isn't it...pullover? (Is there any room on the slow student bench, Kari?)

Pullover - sweater with neck opening
Cardigan - sweater with front opening

Pullover, cardigan, sweaters, knitwear are all terms I grew up with, but I hear "jumper" all the time now as my daughter's bf is British. hee.

And just to add to the confusion - I had a South African friend in high school who complimented me on my "jersey", which to her meant my sweater (V-neck pullover), but to me means the shirt part of a soccer uniform.

I have never known any American who uses the term "pullover," MPJ. I know what it means from watching British sitcoms and hearing people from the Commonwealth countries speak :p But it isn't something I hear or use in my daily interactions.

Theresa, I went to Target and cleared the entire remaining stock of Tim Tams (it came to about $40). I have one package left. That was maybe 3 weeks ago? I rest my case.

Oooh! Michelle, that sounds delish. I've just make banana bread with virtually rotten bananas and it's come out well. You'll have to wrestle Greg for it though.

Theresa, confessions are fab. Hope you enjoyed those caramel Tim Tams.

Bless you MPJ!

Kari, Yup. South Africans refer to jumpers (sweaters) as Jerseys. Although Greg does not.

Clearly I need to try Tim Tams.

The thing about "knitwear" is that when you started using the term, I assumed you also meant regular knits - jersey tops and such. That's why I prefer the term sweaters.

I agree that whatever you choose, an explanatory post is a good idea, especially since each group of us has our own history and expectations of wording.

I distinguish between knits and knitwear, FWIW.

Or I distinguish between knit and knitTED.

I'm always confused by the term "knitwear". I call both cardigans and pullovers "sweaters", if they are sweater material. I consider a knit fabric to be like the Caslon long-sleeve shirt Angie recommended (i.e. not a woven). If it's wool or a fine merino or a knitted cotton or cashmere, it's a sweater. So to me it depends on what it's made of. And no idea where jersey fits in.

Coincidentally, I was just searching for pullovers on ON and Anthropologie today, and was happy to find the sweater category broken down into cardigans and pullovers.

I cop to watching a fair amount of British sitcoms as a child, but I can assure you, it's a fairly common term here, outside of public television.

I call all of it "sweaters." Cardigan sweater, crewneck sweater, turtleneck sweater, V-neck sweater, etc.

As far as the blog post, you can call it whatever you like as long as you define your terms. You may want to continue using the terms you are most comfortable with, but in each and every post you do something like this:

"It's winter and time to bring out the knitwear (my term for what many of you know as sweaters). Today I wore a lovely jumper (another term for a sweater for you Yanks) with a cardigan on top. Tomorrow I plan to break out my denim pinafore (what you Americans would call a jumper -- wow, this is complicated!) and take it for a spin."

It may seem a little cumbersome but I think you would get used to it and I really think it's the clearest way to deal with it. If you don't like the parentheses, will your blogging software do footnotes? Or maybe do links to a glossary?

Seriously, this post made me hungry. Thanks for the milo and timtam cravings!

As a New Zealander, my confusions would come with the use of Jumper to mean Pinafore.

Knitwear to me means something made of wool or a wool mix. Sweater would be a thick cotton fabric and I would instantly think of gear (but I know what it means in the American sense). I wouldn't instantly think it would cover cardigans though.

Pull over - anything that goes over the head in American English that I would call a jersey, although again I would tend to use the word Jersey to cover items made of wool or wool mix rather than a cotton or cotton blend, for which I would probably use the term "top".

Right, I'm off to get my jandals, togs and since it is cold my skivvy...

Just to add to the confusion... there are also cardigans that are not sweaters, i.e., that are made of a stretchy, tee-shirt-y fabric, or fleece. Per Angie's terminology, those would be knits but not "knitwear," and per American terminology, those would be cardigans but not sweaters.

Phew what an interesting read. Fi dont you mean Thongs and Bathers??!

I'll join the girls in the corner for Milo and Tim Tam's and I wont confuse anyone further I'll just say that Aussies have different terminologies for the same things in different states. Perhaps this is a topic for another blog post

So you're not bringing your cozzie then?

Joining you in the corner but suspect you've eaten all the goodies now.

Slightly relieved in some ways that there's so much confusion out there and it's not just me!

I am with others that I generalize all sweaters with one word and will often call a cardigan a sweater. Hearing jumper throws me off sometimes, it's taken a while to realize that is a pullover sweater. But it's also taken me a while to understand the difference between knits and wovens.