Have you ever heard the terms hamburger/hot dog used for describing vertical or horizontal? I have not. At a conference, a millennial said perhaps the "older people" there didn't get it, but she described a paper on the table as being placed in either the hamburger or hot dog position. Seems strange to me.

Sounds like someone trying, and failing, to be clever.

I've yet to see a hot dog standing vertically without assistance. A failed metaphor.

Perhaps the paper was inside a bun.

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hamburger or hot dog position

I don't understand it. Did she explain what she meant?

I think it's reasonably clear that she's using them as an alternative to portrait and landscape for paper orientation but it's a bit willfully obscure and probably her own idiosyncrasy. As I said - trying to be clever.

Reasonably clear and willfully obscure, huh?

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Landscape and portrait don't seem foolishly consistent whereas hamburger and hot dog seem obscure to my little mind.

That's what she meant. I haven't been able to find it anywhere, but she indicated that all millennials know this. Most of us were well beyond the millennial age group, but we just took it for gospel. Maybe she made the whole thing up.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
"... we just took it for gospel. Maybe she made the whole thing up.

IMHO "Gospel" is made up, so there you have it.

Why would someone substitute incomprehensible terms for accepted ones?

Yes, they are pretty comprehensible, aren't they? The conference had the likes of Harvard and Stanford professors, and they were all scratching their heads at that explanation. However, our little millennial thought it a no-brainer. I don't get it.

A hotdog is thin and tall (vertical) while the and a hamburger is short and wide (horizontal).

Okay, now I get it. When did this terminology start and why? As Proof said, "Why would someone substitute incomprehensible terms for accepted ones?"

This seems to have started with paper-folding in kindergarten or perhaps even preschool.
The oldest use I've found is on page 78 in a 1991 children's book, Penguins, by Lola Willrich: "Fold one sheet lengthwise (hot dog fold) and one width-wise (hamburger fold)." These are part of the instructions for making a four-pocket folder.

Hot dog and hamburger are probably easier for a kindergartener to learn than vertical and horizontal (and portrait and landscape). So while they may be incomprehensible to us old folks, they aren't to younger people.

Look up hot dog fold or hot dog book and you'll find lots of information. Angela Baker explains it as simply as possible. Susan Gaylord shows how to make a six-page booklet out of one piece of paper, using only a pair of scissors: Hot Dog Booklet - YouTube. If you watch this video, you'll find out who Margaret Knight was.

By the way, there is a different king of hotdog fold found originally in Escherichia coli: The Hotdog fold: wrapping up a superfamily of thioesterases and dehydratases.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,

You found something about it, Tinman! I looked in slang dictionaries and found nothing. I agree that the Baker explanation is good.

This reminds me of when my kids were in elementary school in the '70s and were learning to add and subtract. There was a concept called "regrouping" that was new to me and I had no idea what it was. I don't remember how long it was before I figured out that "regrouping" is what I learned as "borrowing." Same thing, different name.

And I bet the teachers saw it as a an innovative teaching method.