bus pan

Hi,

What may be the use of this utensil: "bus pan"?
I found it in a description about a restaurante service: "...she pointed (to a new waitress) the ice bin, the bus pans, the rags and ammonia for wiping down tables".

The images I have been looking on the web show me plastic (?) boxes, like large tupperwares. Should this "bus pan" serve to take the dirty dishes out of the tables? And if so, can its meaning be a "tray" (or a large, deep tray)?

Thanks

Here's a bus pan - http://www.eventsource.net/images/products/383-1100SM.jpg

Here's a serving tray -
http://www.eventsource.net/images/products/383-900SM.jpg

I wouldn't think of the bus pan as a deep tray at all. It does seem like a particular use of the word "pan" but I think that's the industry term. I might also call it a "plastic tub", but I wouldn't think of it as a tray. A tray is normally used for serving.

As you guessed, the bus pan is used to collect all the dirty dishes off the tables so that someone can take them to the kitchen for washing.

Thank you, JamesM, for your help.

You're welcome. By the way, the person who clears the table and takes the dishes to the kitchen (if it's not the waitress) is the busboy. I haven't heard "busgirl" even if it's a girl, but I have also heard the more politically correct "bus person".

JamesM said:

You're welcome. By the way, the person who clears the table and takes the dishes to the kitchen (if it's not the waitress) is the busboy. I haven't heard "busgirl" even if it's a girl, but I have also heard the more politically correct "bus person".

Well, a bus person is usually hired for brawn and stamina rather than articulateness or a pleasant personality; hence, the bottom of the labor pool was often trawled for bus boys. Bus girls probably would get the benefit of the doubt and be called waitresses. Of course, now we have bus person and server.

Thank you once more. Just for pure curiosity, "bus" might came from business (table for businesslike persons) or busy (tables full/busy with dishes)? Or neither?

moura said:

Thank you once more. Just for pure curiosity, "bus" might came from business (table for businesslike persons) or busy (tables full/busy with dishes)? Or neither?

I'd say it was neither. 👁 Smile :)
It is a specific meaning of the word as a transitive verb. Here's the entry from www.m-w.com:

transitive verb
1 : to transport by bus
2 a : CLEAR 4d <bus dishes> b : to remove dirty dishes from <bus tables>


I don't know the origin. I hope someone else pipes up with it.

[edit] Ah! I did find this, apparently from The Columbia Guide to Standard English:

http://www.bartleby.com/68/47/1047.html

A bus boy or busboy assists the waiter or waitress in a restaurant; he clears dishes (he buses or busses them), and all of his duties come under the heading of busing or bussing. The origin of this Americanism is uncertain. It is almost certainly from a clipping of omnibus, but whether because busing involves pushing a cart (a bus) full of dirty dishes or clearing everything (food, dishes, silver, glassware, and crumbs—a regular omnibus of items) from the table is unknown. There is no bus girl, but some speakers are beginning to use bus person.

It seemed so silly that I had to check multiple sources, but busboys were originally referred to as "omnibuses."

The Online Etymology Dictionary presents this hodgepodge of an entry:

"four-wheeled public vehicle with seats for passengers," from Fr. (voiture) omnibus "(carriage) for all, common (conveyance)," from L. omnibus "for all," dat. pl. of omnis "all" (see omni-). Introduced by Laffitte in Paris, 1820. In ref. to legislation, the word is recorded from 1842. Meaning "man or boy who assists a waiter at a restaurant" is attested from 1888 (cf. busboy).

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=omnibus

A busboy "conveys all": he carries everything.

Most interesting both comments, JamesM and Bibliolept. Thank you