The French government issued a decree Tuesday banning the term “steak” on the label of vegetarian products, saying it was reserved for meat alone.
The French government issued a decree Tuesday banning the term “steak” on the label of vegetarian products, saying it was reserved for meat alone.
They do have a meaning, yes. And ultraprocessed vegan steaks fulfill the general functions of a steak, so I don’t see what the fuss is all about. There are different kinds of actual meat steaks, and they can’t be used interchangeably. I wouldn’t eat a chicken “steak tartare”, for instance. So differences are allowed as long as the general description matches. And I think we’ll need to agree to disagree, but I have enough imagination to qualify the vegan sewage roll as sausage, because they can be used as substitutes for meat sausages in a meal.
You language prescriptivists are fighting a lost battle anyway. If people call it a steak, it is a steak, the Académie Française be damned. Languages aren’t decided centrally. The language’s speakers collectively make it what it is.