oups .. sorry .. zu der Frage ob whiteware oder white ware oder white-ware wollte ich keine Aussage machen ... mein Links beziehen sich lediglich auf die deutsche Seite.

Be really careful about this. Whiteware is sometimes used to refer to certain types of pottery and sometimes to refer to certain types of product produced by coopers (barrels, buckets, etc.) but not to refer to white (electrical) consumer goods for kitchen/bathroom use... with possible exception of NZ.

White goods and brown goods are well used and well understood terms across the English-speaking world. There is no confusion when referring to them whereas usage of whiteware may well lead to misunderstanding.

My recommendation is to avoid using the term.

@Opa: so "white goods" would be unambiguos? Ok, let's go for that then.
Avoiding the term is not always an option, I'm afraid. Think about translators, who can't go to their customer or to their boss and say: "hey, I don't know how to translate this, and know what? I don't _have_ to know, cause Opa said, you'd better avoided the term alltogehter" ;-) ;-)

Where do you get the qualification from to state "White goods and brown goods are well used and well understood terms across the English-speaking world."? I have lived in Christchurch for 13 years, and haven't heard "white goods" once. Obviously I might have missed it, but it means it's not common. The term "whiteware" appears constantly in advertising and department stores. Hey I can scan you the advertising rubbish if you want. The spelling btw is definitely single-word, no space, no hyphen!

"My recommendation is to avoid using the term." Arguable, if you were the one making the ads texts you'd look like a fool. Also, a dictionary needs to contain the terms which are in use so one can understand them.

Obviously I can only speak for New Zealand. If you think I'm wrong there, come over and I'll show you ;)

Or ask google:
http://www.google.com/search?&domains=.nz&q=w...

Volker, es wird wohl kein Zufall sein, dass fünf der ersten zehn Google-Treffer für "whiteware" von .nz-Domänen kommen ...

Übrigens, dieses Forum ist nur für qualifizierte Vorschläge zu Neueinträgen gedacht; Anfragen wie die obige sind in "German missing" richtig.

Dear Volker/Markus

Well, I was making a suggestion and not laying down the law -> "My recommendation..."

anyway, I bow before your superior knowledge. With more than 60 years as a native English speaker and one time employed in importation of white and brown goods, what would I know?

Below are some links about white ware/whiteware and white goods. Think how stupid you MIGHT look outside NZ if your campaign was advertising white ware. Confusing? Surely not....

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p="white+ware"+&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&fl=0&x=wrt
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p="whiteware"&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&fl=0&x=wrt
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p="white+goods"&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&fl=0&x=wrt?

@Opa: no need to get angry. My point was, that just because a term isn't all that good (e.g. in English), there's no reason to NOT include it in a dictionary. It's good to know that - in your opinion - the term should be avoided, but as a matter of fact, it IS used, and people DO get into the situation that the term has to be translated. That's why I wrote "avoiding the term is not always an option". Let's work together to find the most appropriate translation for the sake of those, who have to earn their living from translating this kind of texts, ok? No offense intended! Have a nice evening!

As a British English speaker I too only know the term white goods, and I've spent a bit of time in NZ too.... New OED only contains 'white goods'; it usually includes regional variants (ie Aus, NZ, US, Indian etc) but in this case not. I'm not saying it isn't prevalent in NZ, but then again I found NZ to have the strangest usage of English I've ever heard, and the NZ translator I know is useless! Have to agree with Opa, if you base your campaign on a strange regional version that is meaningless to 95% of the English speaking population you will have some explaining to do. Maybe two versions are required, NZ and the Rest of the World?

so anyway, if brown goods are Unterhaltungselektronik, what German term includes all the big white boxes (cooker, washing machine, fridge, etc.), i.e. the white goods?

Tanja1, "weiße Ware" (und "braune Ware" für die U-Elektronik) sind in der Branche üblich.

Steht auch schon in LEO: Siehe Wörterbuch: white goods

Also ich kann lexikalisch nur finden, dass MW unabridges "whiteware" kennt, da ich aber nicht mitglied bin, komme ich da nicht ran. bartleby kennt es nicht.

Die MW-Definition 2 für white goods bezieht sich eindeutig auf Weiße Ware im Sinne von Haushaltsgroßgeräten, daher ist der LEO-Eintrag "Elektro-Haushaltsgeräte" etwas irreführend: Ein Mixer ist eindeutig eine Elektrohaushaltsgerät, aber keineswegs Weiße Ware.

Main Entry: white goods
Function: noun plural
1 a : white fabrics especially of cotton or linen b : articles (as sheets, towels, or curtains) orig. or typically made of white cloth
2 : major household appliances (as stoves and refrigerators) that are typically finished in white enamel

Solange niemand eine lexikalische Quelle für whiteware hat, wäre ich gegen einen Eintrag. Selbst bei Wikipedia stoße ich nur auf die Bedeutung white( )ware = Keramik/Porzellan.

whiteware [NewZ; elec.]-- die weiße Ware; Haushalts-Elektrogroßgeräte [Pl.]
white goods [pl.] -- Haushalts-Elektrogroßgeräte [Pl.]
whiteware -- Produkte aus weißer Keramik [Pl.]

Ich möchte obige Einträge vorschlagen.

In der Tat: Ich kann auch kein Wörterbuch auftreiben, dass "whiteware" in dieser Bedeutung führt. Aber diese konzentrieren sich meist auch nur auf AE und BE und ignorieren spezifische Begriffe aus AUS/NZ/ZA/...
Eine Google-Suche in .nz-Domänen führt beeindruckende 10900 Treffer auf, die meinen Stichproben zufolge auch alle die Bedeutung "Elektrogroßgeräte" haben. Das sollte einen Eintrag rechtfertigen.
In Abgrenzung zur Keramik sollte man noch [elec.] anfügen.

Es gibt im Textilbereich auch noch die Weißware: Weiß|wa|re [f. 11] 1 gebleichtes, nicht gefärbtes oder bedrucktes Gewebe (aus Leinen, Halbleinen oder Baumwolle) 2 daraus hergestelltes Produkt [wissen.de]
LEO kennt hier nur den Plural und übersetzt ihn mit "linen goods"; diese Übersetzung schient mir etwas fragwürdig.

Siehe auch
related discussion

@Sophil: Die von Dir genannte Weißware [text] ist laut MW eindeutig white goods (vgl mein vorheriges posting). Ich kriege allerdings in .uk 139 Treffer für linen goods.
Die Idee mit der Abgrenzung für Keramik über die Domäne finde ich gut.

also, um das ganze noch mehr aufzumischen ;-)))
mir ist hier in cheshire (NW UK) folgendes untergekommen:

white ware - geschirr, prozellan
whiteware - waschmaschinen, kuehlschraenke etc

aber nur in printwerbung...

To me, whiteware conjures up images of fridges, freezers, washing machines etc., but then, I am from New Zealand. Nevertheless, I have also heard of "white goods" to mean the same thing. "Brown goods" I would understand to mean the kind of appliances not directly associated with domestic chores. (If we wanted to be politically incorrect, yet retaining a distinctive Kiwi touch, we might rename them "sheilas' gear" and "blokes' gear", respectively ;-))

Sheets, towels, and the like I would categorise as "linen" or "household linen".

@Andy the UK boy in CH: Not very nice of you to say we have the strangest use of English you've ever heard - most of what you hear in London is not exactly the Queen's English either! (And I'm not talking about the immigrants!)I would have thought that someone residing in CH would have become more open-minded with regard to language variation. Anyway, it is really you Brits who have changed the language - we have simply preserved and upheld its true (Victorian) form (i.e., the Queen's English!);-). Why do you think they say we are "more English than the English"? (In Christchurch, at least).

I agree with Mary. NZ English is choice, eh, cuzzy bro! :-)

I've personally only heard "white goods" and never "whiteware" to refer to fridges, ovens, dishwashers etc - and on the basis of a little research on the web, I agree that it is a somewhat ambigious expression given that there is also a kind of porcelain called "white ware".

@rob_oz: Good on ya mate! Really cracker to know there's still some fair dinkum support left in this world, eh? :-)

I think Sophil's suggestion for the entry in LEO is best, with the exception that "white ware" in the meaning of pottery or porcelain is apparently usually spelt as two words. (acc. to my Google search).

I found 33,400 Google hits for "household linen" (NOT only from nz domains) which would be a suitable translation for "weiße Ware" in this sense. Though "linen goods" also exists, it is rarer (991 hits), and as said, this is often simply called "linen".
One American dictionary also calls household linen "white goods" (just to add more confusion).
http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/household_linen
http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/white_goods

Bei Saturn/Media zählen Waschmaschinen, Geschirrspüler, Kühlschränke, etc zu Weißware. Braunware dagegen sind Fernseher und andere Geräte, die üblicherweise in einem schwarzen Gehäuse stecken.

Just wanted to add that I (AE) have never heard of white or brown goods, or whiteware--but maybe it's just because I don't get out much. In any case, I wouldn't know what they mean.

Kann es sein, dass einfach „Weissgeräte“ gemeint ist?

Da gibt es nämlich unzählige Beispiele, wie Google zeigt.
Ich war auch schon mal in einem Laden, der hiess „Weissgeräte [Irgendeinname]”.