American biscuits as British "cookies"? (Was: Tortillas and enchiladas )

[sistermagpie]

 montims:
> 
> going off on a bit of a tangent here, why exactly are American non-
sweet
> scone siblings called biscuits in the first place?  Biscuit is a 
French word
> meaning twice cooked, as is biscotto/i in Italian.  This is why 
the thing is
> crispy and drier and lasts longer than the more airy confection 
known as
> biscuit in America...  Also, I pondered why dog biscuits were not 
called dog
> cookies here, but nobody I asked had a satisfactory reply...  I 
feed my cats
> what I call "cat biscuits" and everybody else calls "kibble" - a 
bizarre
> word I'd never heard before coming to Minnesota...

Magpie:
Couldn't say why it's dog biscuits. I've always called them dog 
biscuits, but when offering them to my dog growing up we always 
called them cookies. Iow, they were referred to as dog bisuits 
officially, but in referring to them we'd say, "Give the dog a 
cookie" or whatever.

I've no idea why Americans started changing what biscuit meant, if 
we know cookie is Dutch.

I have, however, always said kibble and I'm not from Minnesota. If 
you said "cat biscuits" I'd assume you meant like dog biscuits 
(cookies) for cats and not dry cat food.

-m