Etymology of Words and Phrases – Part 2

Entertainment, Food, History 5 Minutes

GABARDINE: Few movements in history have been more thrilling than the pilgrimages of the Middle Ages. Many people traveled to shrines throughout Europe and even to the Holy Land. Pilgrims continued to visit some of the shrines at enormous sacrifice of time and money. They wore an unofficial but characteristic garb: a gray cowl bearing a red cross and a broad-brimmed, stiff hat. Pilgrims carried a staff, a sack, and a gourd. They usually traveled in company with other adventurers, singing hymns as they walked and begging food from those they met.

Medieval Pilgrims

Since a particular type of upper garment was worn by the pilgrim, it gradually came to be identified with the journey itself. A will filed in 1520 included this bequest: “Until litill Thomas Beke my gawbardyne to make him a gowne.” From the garment the term came to refer to the coarse material from which it was customarily made. Slight modifications in spelling produced gabardine – a kind of cloth that passed from the religious pilgrim’s vocabulary into general use.

Assorted Gabardine

RUBBER: On his second voyage to “East India,” Columbus found natives playing with a substance they called caoutchouc. It would stretch and then snap back into shape; when made into balls it would bounce. Scientists who examined the odd substance agreed that it was unlike anything known in Europe, yet they confessed themselves unable to imagine any use for it.

Small quantities of caoutchouc were brought to Europe, but it remained a curiosity for more than two centuries. Finally, someone discovered by accident that the material could be used for removing the marks of a lead pencil. Hence, bookkeepers termed it “lead-eater.”

Around 1780 Joseph Priestley experimented with a bit of caoutchouc, hoping to find some use more important than erasing errors made in ledgers. He failed and decided that it would never be of value except for rubbing out pencil marks.

Joseph Priestley

Consequently, he called it “East India rubber.” Soon the nickname of the one-job substance was abbreviated to rubber. The name serves as a perpetual reminder that civilization was once at a loss as to what to do with a substance of a thousand uses.

MAP: Greek geographers of the sixth century BC developed considerable skill in making charts to guide sailors and travelers. Then the Romans extended the art by engraving scale representations of the Empire on fine marble slabs. These devices, and the more abundant clay tablets, proved to be extremely cumbersome, so someone thought of painting geographical charts upon cloth.

Fragment of Greek “Map”

For this purpose, the most suitable material proved to be fine table linen, or mappa. This led to the practice of calling any flat geographical chart a map.

RECIPE: Since Latin was the universal language of medieval scholars, physicians used it in writing directions for compounding medicines. Virtually every prescription listed the ingredients in precise order and began with the Latin verb recipe, meaning “take.”

Ancient Apothecary “Recipes”

Care in measuring and blending the ingredients of a tasty dish is also essential. Therefore, when housewives began to master the art of reading and writing, they adopted the apothecary’s custom and made written lists of ingredients and steps in cookery. Inevitably, such a set of directions took the pharmaceutical name and became familiar to the household recipe.

BUDGET: Struggling with a budget is no new problem; it dates back to the days of the Roman Empire. Housewives had to be cautious in their spending and they kept money for household expenses in a little leather bulga (Latin for bag). This custom also prevailed among businessmen, who may have borrowed it from their wives or vice versa.

Antique “Bulga”

Centuries later, the Latin word was adopted into Middle French as bougette (“little leather bag”). When the British Chancellor of Exchequer appeared before Parliament, he carried his papers explaining the estimated revenue and expenses in a leather bag and then “opened the budget” for the coming year. Thus, budget (as it came to be pronounced) came to mean a systematic plan for expenditures, both for governments and for private individuals.

EAT ONE’S HAT: Many a man engaged in a contest of some sort has offered to eat his hat if he loses. In such a situation, a knowledge of etymology would be of great value, for the expression eat one’s hat once referred not to a Stetson or a Panama, but to a culinary product.

Napier’s famous Boke of Cookry, one of the earliest European cookbooks, gives the following directions: “Hattes are made of eggs, veal, dates, saffron, salt, and so forth.” In the hands of amateur cooks, the concoction was frequently so unpalatable that it required a strong stomach to eat it.

Even so, the early braggart who offered to eat a hatte had in mind nothing so distasteful as a felt or a straw!

FLOUR: During the Elizabethan Age, the word “flower” meant “the best,” as it does today in such expressions as “the flower of the nation’s youth.”

Millers of the period ground wheat by a crude process, then sifted the meal. Only the finest of it passed through the cloth sieve in a process called “boulting.” Reserved for tables of the nobility, this top-quality ground wheat was naturally called the “flower of wheat,” but in this context the word came to be spelled flour. The two spellings were used interchangeably until the 19th century. In Paradise Lost, Milton wrote the line, “O flours that never will in other climates grow.”

Boulting

COOKING TERMS: There is at least one serious gap in European history. Her contemporaries failed to record the name of the woman who first thought of stuffing an egg. Nothing is known about her recipe, except that she was liberal with pepper. Her invention was so hot that folks who tried it were reminded of Beelzebub’s fiery furnaces. As a result, the tidbit came to be called a deviled egg.

Most other terms of cookery are prosaic by comparison. More than half were borrowed from the French – which suggest that English cooks were never very imaginative. Braise stems from French for “hot charcoal.” Toast is but slightly modified from “toaster” (“to parch with heat). Boil stems from a continental verb meaning “to make little bubbles.” Poach grew out of pocher, which meant “to pouch,” that is, to enclose an egg’s yellow in a little pouch of white.

Fry, grill, roast and baste were also adapted from French. Fricassee was taken as is from that language, but the ultimate origin is unknown.

The oldest term in cookery is probably cook, still much like Latin coquus. The Norse gave us bake, from baka (“hearth”). The Saxons contributed sear, spelled just as it is today. It originally meant to “wither with heat.” Scorch – the bane of a cook’s existence – has a long history that goes all the way back to the Old English scorkle, which started life as a term for skinning meat by searing.

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Published by NebraskaFilly

Army veteran (1976-1979), retired with entirely too much time on my hands

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169 thoughts on “Etymology of Words and Phrases – Part 2”

  5. oh…almost forgot…one other thing i did do…
    I bought the winning lottery ticket for the billion dollar prize this evening…so save your money. it’s in the bag…the clerk told me so…!!!

    Liked by 2 people

  6. oh for pete’s sake…DC changing penalties for crimes…like now allowing public urination…
    entire article
    When your whole city’s a toilet, why not embrace it?

    The D.C. Council is expected to take the first of two votes Tuesday on a massive rewrite of its criminal code. If passed, the bill would eliminate most mandatory minimum sentences, allow for jury trials in almost all misdemeanor cases and reduce the maximum penalties for offenses such as burglaries, carjackings and robberies.

    Assume that there’ll be a lot more burglaries, carjackings and robberies.

    Not to mention public urination.

    Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Robert Contee III are pushing back hard on parts of the plan they don’t agree with, and say the council is rushing to beat an arbitrary deadline.

    At a news conference Tuesday, the mayor said the concern is over the decriminalization of certain public nuisances, such as urinating in public or noise violations.

    Like most “criminal justice reform” measures, this is a pro-crime project meant to enable more of it.

    “The requirement for Burglary 1 (first-degree burglary), which would be the highest grade of burglary, would require that a resident perceive that the person was inside of their home,” said Contee. “First, why are we shifting the burden to the resident in order to charge the highest penalty? You’ve been victimized.”

    “Burglary 2, which is a lesser degree, does not require that you perceive, that you knew, the person broke into your house. … If you are asleep and you don’t wake up while the person is in your house, then that’s a lower grade, but if you wake up and you happen to see the person is in there, then that’s a higher degree of burglary? That just does not make sense to me.”

    “Most robberies that we see in our city don’t have significant injury,” said Contee. “… We should not be looking into the lens where the highest penalty is where a person sustained serious, or significant, bodily injury. The fact that you had a gun in your face is significant to me, and I think if you talk to most residents who have been victimized by a robbery, they will share the traumatic experience they’ve had.”

    And all of this is happening with a surge in carjackings.

    MPD has recorded 326 total carjackings between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30 of this year, representing a 27% increase compared to the same time period last year, when MPD had recorded 264 carjackings. Of those carjacking incidents reported as of Aug. 30, 73% have involved guns.

    Time to decriminalize carjacking all the way.

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/washington-d-c-to-legalize-public-urination/

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Liked by 2 people

  9. You should be proud of me, Pat! I just ate 3 scrambled eggs with cheese, S&P and Taragon, with the equivalent of 4-5 pieces of bacon. Note to self: do NOT buy the cheap/on-sale bacon! Good grief, it was 70% fat! So I pulled most of the fat off of it and ended up with bite size pieces of meat. Kind of crispy but I manage with bacon! I have a MW tray for bacon – I line it with paper towels, top and bottom of the bacon, and they soak up all the grease! With most of the fat removed, there was not much of it. Easy/peasy clean-up!

    Liked by 1 person

        1. OH…i never tried it in the microwave…
          hubby always like to fry it in the cast iron skillet, then he drains a LITTLE fat off and i do mean a little and fries his eggs in the rest…
          I love the smell of bacon but can’t stand the taste

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Oh, I like eggs like that, too, but not as much as scrambled or in an omelet, neither of which would I cook in bacon grease…altho I guess you could. Using the MW, I don’t have that bacon grease smell hanging around for days, nor do I have the grease to dispose of, using the paper towels. I just started doing that and it works perfectly! Bacon gets nice and crispy in 3 minutes, doesn’t stick with the paper towels. A little less than it takes to cook the eggs.

            Liked by 1 person

              3. This is the one I have – I put paper towels on the bottom and the top of the bacon, then put the lid on, pop it in the MW for 3 minutes (or less, if you don’t want it as crisp). Take it out and be careful – the sides of the tray will be very hot, as is the lid. I put on about 7 pieces of bacon when I really fill it up.

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  10. H/T M

    Truth Hammer

    An update by way of Gregg Phillips’ son:

    Update on Gregg:
    So, the Warden’s wife is a Patriot! The Warden was not following the case, but his wife was. After finding out that Gregg and Catherine was at their location, and connecting the dots as to whom they were, the Warden came in and spoke to Gregg and Catherine for some time.
    After the discussion, the Warden, being a Patriot and Constitution-loving bad-ass, cleared an entire floor and have Gregg housed there. Door open. Rec room whenever he wants.

    (presumably Catherine is also being taken care of, but that info was not included in the update)

    Liked by 3 people

  11. ground report–I almost forgot.
    the little market/gas station: gas $3.99/gal
    the shelves are stocked–or they appear so (maybe only 1 or 2 of something, but there is a person whose job it is to always bring the merchandise to the front of the shelf if you know what i mean.) while walmart always has a shortage of pasta, these people always have some–more expensive, but you can always get it.

    anyway, 2 woman (mother and daughter guessing by their ages) hippies–kid you not! white women wearing dreads and the younger wearing a black beanie, both wearing bell bottoms and crocs no socks…and PONCHOS…
    but they had the latest fold in half phones (??!!!!) and used assistance cards…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I did notice that gas in Norfolk yesterday was down $.20/gallon. I only wanted a couple of things @ WM – they didn’t have the larger containers of creamer I wanted except for one Caramel-Macchiato. Other than that, I didn’t pay a lot of attention. I always see odd people there but nothing especially notable yesterday. LOL

      Liked by 1 person

  12. from wolfs
    para59rOnline
    Coyote
    November 2, 2022 12:44

    Speaking of Joe. Dark Brandon 2.0 tonight.

    JUST IN: President Biden is going to speak tonight from Union Station about election deniers and ‘preserving and protecting our democracy’ as Election Day approaches. pic.twitter.com/w7ASUA2WiR

    — Scott Thuman (@ScottThuman) November 2, 2022

    Liked by 1 person

    1. this might be the most important speech of his presidency–
      lots of people thought the dems would find a way to cancel elections…see if this fills the bill

      Liked by 1 person

  13. “Hungary’s Orbán is playing to win, says French author — Nowadays, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary represents the nations striving for sovereignty”

    November 02, 2022

    ENTIRE ARTICLE @ ReMIX: “Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is showing other European nations that there are alternatives to losing their sovereignty and bending the knee to Brussels, writes French author Thibaud Gibelin in his book “Orbán is playing to win.”

    “In just a few years, Viktor Orbán has become the face of Central Europe for the French public. My essay is entitled ‘The revival of Central Europe.’ Understanding the Hungarian prime minister means recognizing the main trends represented by Fidesz in Hungary, which are gaining ground in neighboring countries and which would have remained out of the spotlight without (Orbán as) a spokesman,” Gibelin said during an interview with Hungarian news portal Index regarding the key conclusions of his book.

    ‘French author Thibaud Gibelin’s book on Hungarian Prime Viktor Orbán, which was first released in French, has now been translated to Hungarian.’

    Orbán has seen extraordinary success in his home country, scoring a majority that remains the envy of Western political leaders who also see far lower approval ratings than Orbán enjoys in his own country. Gibelin portrays the Hungarian leader as a figurehead for not only political parties in Europe, but also as a source for ideology and strategy. “Nowadays, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary represents the nations striving for sovereignty,” Gibelin writes in his book.

    Conservative politicians from other nations are looking to emulate this success at the ballot box while also boosting the independence of their own nations.

    “Moreover, all Western criticism of Hungary focuses on the Hungarian prime minister, so the question is to understand what Viktor Orbán represents. Fidesz’s victory in 2018 was a complete mystery to French political analysts. Its strong rejection of migration and its campaign against the ‘Soros plan’ were used (by the French) to portray the Hungarian conservative elite as shameful and absurd. How could this policy have gained significant democratic legitimacy? This is the question I have tried to answer,” Gibelin told Index.

    Asked about the reception of the book in his home country of France, the author says the French have a tendency to project their own issues onto others. “Orbán is, first and foremost, a symbol in France. He is the scapegoat the left uses, accusing him of the functional problems of the European Union. In contrast, Viktor Orban is a model for many French conservatives. The book was a success on the right but was met with a suspicious silence on the left. This is the first book published in French on recent Hungarian politics that does not consider Hungarian ambitions since 2010 to be suspicious or worthy only of guilt,” he said.

    Orbán is offering a solution to all of Europe — Gibelin says Orbán not only works for the interests of his own country, as what he does can also serve as a model for other European nations.

    “Viktor Orbán offers a realistic approach that will benefit not only Hungary but also Europe. It is based on the recognition of the European civilization’s unity, the bankruptcy of liberal globalism, and the national perspective, which I see as the first positive political dynamic since the European Civil War of 1914-1945. It is about the liberation of Europe from its destiny in America,” he says.

    “What strikes me in particular is his ability to synthesize the politics of the day and the long-term vision. This ability allows him to combine the aspirations of the majority with the opportunities offered by the international power structure.”

    Liked by 1 person

  15. EXCERPT: “Matthew J. Peterson at New Founding summed up the Democrats’ fake apology tour in four tweets:

    ‘Hey—sorry you lost your job b/c of the vax that doesn’t work and your grandmother died alone and you couldn’t have a funeral and your brother’s business was needlessly destroyed and your kids have weird heart problems—but let’s just admit we were all wrong and call a truce, eh?

    It’s too bad we shut the entire economy down & took on tyrannical powers that have never been used before in this country—looking back, you should have been able to go to church and use public parks while we let people riot in the streets—but it was a confusing time for everyone.

    Hey I’m sorry we scared the hell out of you & lied for years & persecuted & censored anyone who disagreed but there was an election going on & we really wanted to beat Donald Trump so it was important to radically politicize the science even if it destroyed your children’s lives.

    OK, yes we said unvaccinated people should die & not get healthcare while never questioning Big Pharma once but we are compassionate people which is why even though we shut down the entire economy we also bankrupted the nation & caused inflation. You’re welcome! Let’s be friends.’

    Needless to say, our politicians and public health officials really want you to forget that they took America right to the edge of the abyss.
    —————–
    It’s no surprise that these pleas for amnesty have been published after the midterm polls showed a “red wave” forming. If the polls had gone the other way, Biden’s FBI would probably be wrangling you onto a boxcar right now headed for a FEMA camp — and you know it.

    Never forgive. Never forget.”

    https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/democrats-want-amnesty-for-the-covid

    Liked by 1 person

  19. In case you didn’t see this, Pat…..what do you think this means? I wonder if they might be planning on going after him, personally…..

    From M: “Shadow just informed me that on TS peeps are reporting–“TFR–Temporary Flight Restriction over MAR A Lago–October 31st- May 31st, 2023!!! Enacted by the FAA define the area as National Defense Airspace, Put in place to protect against aircraft deemed to pose a credible safety or security threat to protected personnel!!”

    ARE WE PROTECTING THE CURRENT PRESIDENT?!!!!! Mind Blown!!
    ————-
    I found this link: FAA’s current TFR list:

    https://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.html

    M’s reply: It’s on there!!!! Palm Beach Florda…10/31/2022-5/32/2023!!!!!!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

  22. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

  46. Well, it’s done! The stent ended up blocking off some peripheral arterial flow from the aorta, but there are absolutely no problems with the procedure. I got set up in a room kinda late after a long time in recovery, but I’m in no discomfort at all and am anticipating release tomorrow! Couldn’t be better!

    Liked by 1 person

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