At yesterday’s national dinner of the lgbt advocacy organization HRC (Human Rights Campaign) at the Washington Convention Center: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, tennis star Billie Jean King, the band DNCE, Gold Star father Khizr Khan, actress Uzo Aduba, U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris — and, among the items at the silent auction, this array of KitchenAid stand mixers (donated by Whirlpool, the parent corporation of KitchenAid):
(#1) The Pride flag done in KitchenAid mixers (photo by Amanda Walker)
So many kinds of interest here: the lgbt angle (twice, in the HRC event itself, and then in the rainbow flag display); the food angle (the mixers are famously versatile in food preparation, especially, using a dough hook attachment, for kneading bread); the design angle (the mixers are sturdy, do their jobs well, are easy to use, and are handsome to look at); and the English lexicographic angle (in the culinary specialization of the agent noun mixer and in the compound stand mixer, and the related compound hand mixer).
On the company. from Wikipedia:
KitchenAid is an American home appliance brand owned by Whirlpool Corporation. The company was started in 1919 by The Hobart Corporation to produce stand mixers; the “H-5” was the first model introduced. The company faced stiff competition as rivals moved into this emerging market, and introduced its trademarked silhouette in the 1930s with the model “K”, the work of designer Egmont Arens. The brand’s stand mixers have changed little in design since, and attachments from the model “K” onwards are compatible with the modern machines. Dishwashers were the second product line to be introduced, in 1949.
There are a number of models, differing in a variety of features and ranging in cost from around $200 to over $500. Some models are available in only a few colors, but one model comes in 22 colors and another in over 10.
Linguistc notes. There are a number of NOAD2 subentries for mixer, including this general one, with a culinary specialization noted:
noun mixer: (often with modifier) a machine or device for mixing things [a cement mixer, for example, as in Slim Galliard’s song “Cement Mixer (Put-Ti-Put-Ti)”, aka “Cement Mixer, Putty Putty”], especially an electrical appliance for mixing foods: a food mixer.
Note the specialization in several dimensions here: an electrical device (not a hand-operated device, like a (rotary) (egg)beater or a whisk), specifically for mixing foods (that is, foodstuffs).
(#2) An OXO egg beater, easy to grip
Then there are the N + N compounds — food mixer (a synthetic compound, incorporating the object of the verb mix); electric mixer, explicitly distinguishing mixers from beaters; and in commercial (semi-technical) use, two subsective compounds with mixer ‘food mixer’ as the head noun, N2: hand mixer ‘mixer held in the hand’ (#3 below) and stand mixer ‘mixer incorporating a supporting stand’ (#1 above).
(#3) A KitchenAid hand mixer, in Empire Red
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