'hot dog' belongs in a thesaurus, not a dictionary. It's just a type of sausage.

If people assume it's "just a type of sausage" it suggests a dictionary entry is needed to explain otherwise.

It's a term referring to a small set of types of sausages served in a specific small set of ways. In some places, a hot dog can be used as a synonym for the predominant type of sausage most common in hot dogs in that place, but the term is still more commonly referring to the assembly of a wiener or frankfurter wrapped in a bread of some sort.

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krisoft 15 minutes ago | parent [-]

> the term is still more commonly referring to the assembly of a wiener or frankfurter wrapped in a bread of some sort

I had that disagreement in an alpine resort once. A seller was vending some sort of sausage stuffed in a bread, i was hungry so I walked up to them with money in hand and said "A hot dog please" while pointing at the only thing they were selling. The lady was mortified by my utterance, and was not willing to accept the money until I agreed with her that it is a bratwurst and not a hot dog. :D The disagreement felt a bit academical, but given that she was holding the hot dogs hostage and money does not taste that good she won the argument.

	▲	vidarh 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Personally think a bratwurst is borderline, in that it is "close enough" that I can see someone calling a bratwurst in a bread a hot dog, and I wouldn't react if a shop listed them as a type of hot dog on a menu. But, yeah, some places "hot dog" also carries a connotation of potentially using lower quality sausages, so I can also totally see a bratwurst vendor taking offense...

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Wobbles42 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A dictionary is an enumeration of words. A thesaurus is a mapping between existing words.

Every word in a thesaurus belongs in a dictionary.

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alecbz 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

All words in a thesaurus would generally also be in a dictionary? The difference between a thesaurus and a dictionary is what each tells you about a word.

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dec0dedab0de 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s a type of sausage, but they are definitely not synonymous. At least not in American English.

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smt88 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

In the US, if you ordered a hot dog and got a sausage (or vice versa), it would be very reasonable to return the item and ask for something else. They are culturally completely different, the same way Cheerios in milk is not another cold soup like gazpacho is.