How funny, and I haven't read the entire thread. When a kid, living half-and-half in Europe and out west, that hunk of metal in the yard was called the barbecue pitt, and anything you cooked on it (always with charcoal) was barbecued. To this day in places I've lived things are called barbecue that wouldn't pass muster by eastern standards. Santa Maria Barbecue (one place I've lived) is really grilled by that standard, and Hawaiian/Korean barbecued meat is also grilled. Then I lived in the southeast, and you'd better ****ed well say grilled and differentiate between that and what I'd generally consider smoked. Sauteed was something cooked in a few tablespoons of oil and moved about in the pan very quickly (actually sautee and, if I remember correctly, chow, really have about the same meaning and really refer to the movement of the food in the pan). Frying means a lot more oil (at least a quarter inch), and you don't move the food except to turn it over once. Deep frying means you immerse the food in oil. One thing that has been mentioned, but needs to be emphasized, is that these terms came about before teflon, propane grills, grill pans. When the terms were coined, grilling meant cooking on a grill, not your stove. sautee-ing and frying meant oil, period. You couldn't sautee or fry in a dry pan, period. You'd ruin that great cast iron pan if you didn't put some oil in it (i.e., season it), and the steel one would be a mess. The terms were coined in a different world than the one we live in now.