I was at a breakfast meeting recently with a handful of American colleagues and some visiting Italian investors.

In lieu of bread, the restaurant we ate at served a basket of little blueberry muffins.

“What’s the word for muffin in Italian?” an American colleague asked.

“We don’t have a word for it,” one of the Italians replied.

“Then what would you call this?” she persisted.

“Well,” the Italian said, “I think we would call it ‘cake’.”