Don’t just bring an empty plate when you are invited for dinner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a humorous blog post by Laurie Smale on September 22, 2025 titled Magic Minute Quirky Aussie Custom. He begins by stating an idiom:

 

“Just about every Australian newcomer I’ve met has been thrown by the perplexing Aussie request to ‘bring a plate’ when invited to an informal gathering among friends.”

There is an explanation at the Australian National University web page containing Bring a Plate in Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms:

 

“An invitation to bring a plate of food to share at a social gathering or fundraiser. There are many stories of new arrivals in Australia being bamboozled by the instruction to bring a plate. As the locals know, a plate alone will not do. In earlier days the request was often ladies a plate, sometimes followed by gentlemen a donation. First recorded in the 1920s.”

 

And the Wikipedia page for a potluck says that:

 

“Other names for a ‘potluck’ include: potluck dinner, pitch-in, shared lunch, spread, faith supper, carry-in dinner, covered-dish-supper, fuddle, Jacob's Join, bring a plate, pot-providence and fellowship meal.”

 

Carrie Newcomer has an August 28, 2023 YouTube video of her song Potluck.

 

A related idiom is discussed by Martha Barnett at A Way with Words on June 14, 2013 in an article titled Ring the doorbell with your elbow. Why your elbow? Because both your hands are full!

 

An image of an Alberta potluck came from Wikimedia Commons.