h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In fact, the turnip known to Scots as a neep and eaten with haggis and tatties is in fact the vegetable known in England as a swede (apparently originally from the phrase "Swedish turnip"). The writer appears to have been misled by the fact that the Scots and the English both use the word turnip, but for different vegetables. The only name for the English turnip (small, purple skin white flesh) that I know of in use in Scotland is "white turnip" or, presumably though I've never heard it "white neep".

The questions remain:
1. Do Swedes really prefer to eat swedes (not Swedes)?
2. What is a rutabaga and how does it fit in?

Isn't rutabaga another name for a swede?

As a Swede (Swedish person) living in Scotland, I always get a slight (very minor) chill down my spine when I read the canteen menu and they're serving "diced swedes".

Just a comment.

Ashley, your answer is quite correct, and spawns more "interesting" lines of inquiry, for the rutabaga is not only a swede but a dialectically Swedish one at that. Webster's ( I have a shelf with at least 200 reference books behind me and no excuse for posting simple questions such as "What is a rutabaga") says it is "a turnip with a very large, yellowish root" from a Swedish dialect where "rotabagge" means root bag. - Wow!

By the way, and more cogently, now must be the time to mention clapshot - a generic term for mashed neeps and tatties as served with haggis.

God this is making me hungry. I'm off to see if I can order haggis online!

Do Webster's say that in Swedish dialect, "rotabagge" means 'root bag'? Can't be correct. "Bagge" in Swedish means "ram" as in male sheep, you know.

Ah, so Mr Webster appears to have erred. Mind you, he did only say "a Swedish dialect"--perhaps a very obscure or obsolete one?

I have to say that that dialect must be very obscure and obsolete if Webster is correct. In my 25 years of being a Swede I must admit that the only two meanings of the word 'bagge'. 1. As stated before: A ram, male sheep. 2. Slang name for the VolksWagen Beetle, aka VolksWagen Bubble.

I'll have to look into it.