Eat These Words

Cape crow (Wikimedia Commons)

’Tis the season to eat, drink — and do etymology, if only to work off a few of those holiday calories.

A menu of 20 items fills the November-December issue of Gerald Cohen’s self-published journal, Comments on Etymology, which is titled “Material for the Study of Food Terminology, Primarily From Barry Popik’s Research, Part 1.”

(Who is Barry Popik? A consulting editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America; a contributor to the Dictionary of American Regional English, among other estimable etymological works; and, as Cohen says, “one of the most extraordinary researchers of Americanisms.”)

But back to Comments on Etymology. It’s generous with citations of primary sources, explaining how they can be combined to explain the origins of a word. The evidence is what matters, and Cohen gladly returns to a word when he learns that someone has found an earlier source.

The origin stories to be savored in the current issue are many and varied.

Take the dismissive use of “applesauce.” It comes from an old joke: A teacher has 12 pupils and only 11 apples. She wants to divide them evenly among the children. What does she do?

“Chicken á la king”: Named after its inventor, William King, a Philadelphia hotel cook.

“What am I, chopped liver?” An answer is provided by “Ask the Rabbi”: Chopped liver was a side dish, so it the term came to express the hurt feelings of someone who feels overlooked.

“Cobbler,” a kind of pie: Perhaps it’s from a particular shoemaker’s reputation for clumsiness. (Admittedly speculative.)

“Crêpes suzette”: There are competing stories of who invented it (Young Henri Charpentier? Monsieur Joseph?), who Suzette was, and where it was created.

“Danish pastry”: popularized in the United States by L.C. Klitteng, of Denmark, who arrived in 1915, toured the country giving demonstrations, and started the Danish Culinary School, in New York. But Danish pastry was known as early as 1914. Nineteen pages of the Cohen’s journal are devoted to primary sources showing the early history of Danish pastry, including four pages of photocopied ads.

“Eating crow”: It comes from a joke about a man who, boasting that he can eat anything, is challenged to eat a crow that has been covertly stuffed  with snuff. “I kin eat a crow,” he concludes, “but I’ll be darned if I hanker after it.”

We learn how and why the “margarita” was invented, in Juarez, Mexico, in 1942. We learn that “slow as molasses” comes from “slow as cold molasses.” We learn that the “Moscow mule,” a vodka cocktail, was made in two versions, the later one with ginger beer.

Other items on the menu include “oyster bar,” “pie-eating contest,” “thin potato chip,” “Thousand Island dressing,” and “ice cream cone” — enough to stimulate any etymological appetite.

Cohen’s longtime journal has never gone online, but you can email him at gcohen@mst.edu to arrange for a subscription.