Would you gussy up a meatloaf for a company dinner?

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nutraxfornerves
nutraxfornerves

Over on Get Stuffed, we are discussing meatloaf (the food, not the singer).

Midwesterner (from the US, guess what part) posted
>Midwest American meatloaves are made with beef and topped with ketchup / tomato sauce before baking. For a company dinner, it might be baked in a ring mold, tipped out for serving and the center filled with peas in a cream sauce.

Tony (a Scot) replied
>Mw: does For a company dinner mean a corporate dinner?

I (from California) answered
>No. It means "When I have company over for dinner." You wouldn't serve meatloaf at a formal dinner party, but you might if Aunt Mabel & Uncle Fred stopped by for dinner when they were in town. Only you'd gussy it up a bit with that ring mold.

And Midwesterner followed up with
>tony - the "company dinner" question might be good for Speaking In Tongues branch. I never considered the ambiguity as I typed that phrase in my first post, but I would use the term both when referring to a corporate dinner (never held at someone's home) and when I mean "having company over to my home for dinner". In this situation, nutrax is correct about what I meant. A quick search found references to company dinner (home version) by posters from North Carolina, Alaska, and elsewhere in the Midwest.

Now I'm curious about whether you'd every "gussy up" a meal?

So my questions are:
A) do you use or understand the term "company dinner" in the above sense? How about "family dinner" meaning "just the family, no guests."
B) are you familiar with "gussy (or gussie) up"? Definition & speculation on the origin of the phrase

Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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northamerican
northamerican

A. I understood the terms.

B. To me, "gussy up" is a term to be used with reference to clothing: "You're all gussied up! New boyfriend?"

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itsasmallworld1
itsasmallworld1

A. I understood company dinner as a dinner of people of a Co.
B. had no idea of the term

I am no native speaker so I might not be a good reference to your poll ...It is interesting to learn a new expression though!

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dianahaddad
dianahaddad

a. company dinner: I would not have understood Midwesterner. Family dinner: I would have understood.

b. I think of it as an old-fashioned term, and related to clothing only. But I would have understood it if I had read it in that post.

East Coast USA.

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bjd
bjd

I read it on the original post and understood what Midwesterner meant simply because meatloaf is such an ordinary sort of food (without the ketchup, of course!). But I don't think I would have used the expression "company dinner". To me as well it sounds like a dinner held by the company you work for.

Like to the others, gussy up sounds very old-fashioned and related to clothing.

Canadian English.

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viaggero
viaggero

I am a Northeasterner, now living in the South and have never hear the expression company dinner. As with number #, I would think it was a dinner put on by his/her company. If I wanted to express 'company dinner' I would say that I'm having guests/company for dinner.

Gussy up is only used for dressing up in the contexts that I"ve heard it.

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sashac001
sashac001

I think, as bjd alluded to, it would depend on the context of the conversation. When discussing meatloaf, I think of a dinner in which I am having company over (as I thought when reading this post). But if talking about something else like where one is going for dinner I would think of a company where you work, since no one is company when one eats out.

I also think of "gussy up" as an old fashioned term mostly used for clothing but I have heard it used for other stuff.

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tony0001
tony0001

gussy up+ is a term I have not come across before. The only English word I can connect it tae is +gusset which Chambers Dictionary, Edinburgh defines thus:

gusset+, noun: dressmaking - a piece of material sewn into a garment for added strength or to allow for freedom of movement, eg at the crotch; +gussetting, noun. ETYMOLOGY: 15c: from French gousset.

Edited by: tony0001: ETYMOLOGY added.

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shilgia
shilgia

A. I would have understood it. Family dinner also.
B. Never heard of it before this thread.

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sashac001
sashac001

Ah, no tony. It's more like snazzing it up, getting all dressed up. Not having a more comfortable crotch. :)

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