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By: Alice,
on 2/8/2013
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Did you know that ‘croissant’ literally means ‘crescent’ or that oranges are native to China? Do you realize that the word ‘pie’ has been around for seven hundred years in English or that ‘toast’ comes from the Latin word for ‘scorch’? John Ayto explores the word origins of food and drink in The Diner’s Dictionary. We’ve made a little quiz based on the book. Are you hungry for it?
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John Ayto is a freelance writer and the author of many reference works, including the Dictionary of Slang, the Dictionary of Modern Slang, and Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Seasoned generously with literary wit, The Diner’s Dictionary is a veritable feast, tracing the origins and history of over 2,300 gastronomical words and phrases.
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By: Charles Hodgson,
on 6/19/2008
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According to John Ayto’s A to Z of Food and Drink:
“These new-moon-shaped puff-pastry rolls seem first to have been introduced to British and American breakfast tables towards the end of the nineteenth century.”
He goes on to cast aspersions on the stories told about the invention of these yummy baked goods. Wikipedia disses the stories too.
I’ll tell that tale in a moment, but I want first to point out that Ayto accurately called croissants new-moon-shaped.
John Ayto has written several books about words and their origins and so I’m sure that he chose his words there very carefully.
Of course we call that shape of moon a crescent moon and of course the words crescent and croissant are really two flavors of the same word; crescent arriving in English from French in the 1300s and croissant along with the pastry in at the end of the 1800s, also from French.
But when I refer to a crescent moon I’m usually just intending to communicate its fingernail-clipping shape. It could just as easily be a waning moon as a waxing moon.
But new-moon-shaped refers only to waxing, or growing moons, and this is as is should be because the very word crescent has an etymology related to the growing moon.
A new moon begins with a very thin sliver of a crescent that grows and grows until it’s a full moon. It’s that growing we’re looking for.
I mentioned in the podictionary episode on recruit that an Indo-European root ker meant to grow. This same root turns up as crescere in Latin and was then applied to the growing moon. The shape thus took its name from this horned appearance of the moon.
This same shape is an Islamic symbol and the much discredited story of the invention of the edible croissant is tied to this Islamic crescent.
Supposedly the bakers in either Vienna or Budapest were up early one morning going at it with their bread dough and stoking up their ovens when they heard a digging noise.
They alerted the army who then prevented the Turks from entering the city by tunneling under the city walls. As a reward the bakers were allowed to, or asked to create celebratory goodies in the shape of the Islamic crescent.
Trouble is that these Turkish attacks happened back around the end of the 1600s and the first reference we have to the pastries doesn’t come until something like 170 years later. The first time the word was used in English was in 1899 according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
The user was a small time author from Alabama named William Chambers Morrow. He used it pretty enthusiastically too since it appears three times in his book about how students lived in Paris 100 and some-odd years ago.
But this use of croissant for the delicacy didn’t mean that was the first time English speakers were experiencing them. Crescent rolls are cited as an Americanism 13 years before.
Five days a week Charles Hodgson produces
Podictionary – the podcast for word lovers, Thursday episodes here at OUPblog. He’s also the author of
Carnal Knowledge – A Navel Gazer’s Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia as well as the audio book
Global Wording – The Fascinating Story of the Evolution of English.
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I'm cheating (just a tiny bit) today. Liz and I have this whole "Exercise of Writing" week going on, and I need it and Poetry Friday to play nice together. So, I'm giving you some poetic excerpts from one of my favorite books about sports (and so much more):
(This is the paperback cover.
I own the hardback, which looks quite
different.)
was
Rich Wallace's first book, and he's gone on to write
many more. But when I met him at the
Highlights Foundation Writer's Workshop at Chautauqua, he had just published this strong debut novel, with blurbs on the back from the likes of Robert Cormier, Jerry Spinelli, and Chris Crutcher. (It also received starred reviews from Booklist and Publisher's Weekly, and was noted by ALA as a Quick Pick and a Best Book for Young Adults.) He's still on the
Writer's Workshop faculty today, so catch him there, if you can.
You would think that I (a girl) would not like a book (about a boy) that features a sport (wrestling) that I've never attempted, but you would be wrong (arm twisted behind your back wrong.) I love this story, and one reason is the short poetic lists that are interspersed throughout the book. Here's one:
Things I've done twice:
* pinned Al (seventh grade)
* told my father to go to hell
* read Conditioning for Wrestling: The Iowa Way
Things I haven't:
* left home for four days
* been suspended from school for
telling a teacher to kiss my ass
* had sex
And here's one more:
What happens before a match (in this order):
* diarrhea and mood swings
* a kind of prayer where you curse at
God and beat yourself up, then tell
God you're sorry and he says it's okay
* a concentrated sense of focus
What doesn't:
* you don't joke around with anybody
* you don't resign yourself to losing
* you never say it doesn't matter what
happens
Maybe Rich Wallace didn't think of those brief interludes as poetry. But I choose to.
Poetry Friday is hosted today at
Mentor Texts & More. Come play.
Yeah, so I heard that some of you aren't into this whole mind/body thing. And that you'd rather buy a Fab-Ab-Cruncher than my writing/exercise game theory. So I'm going to play hardball today. That's right, I'm hauling out the METAPHORS. (Be afraid. Very afraid.)
Ever think of....
Writing as Boxing:
Looking for a win? Fine, but don't rig the fight. You need a genuine opponent, not a weak premise that exists only so you can score a quick KO. You need something heavy and well-anchored that pushes back when you give it hard jab. Look at that picture...he's
fighting, not "working out." Pick a worthy subject. Get into the ring. My money's on YOU.
Writing as golf:
Putts add up. So do details. If you play eighteen holes as an amateur, putting is half (or more) of your score. So forget the overblown drivers and the sweet hybrid irons. Read the greens (and the dictionary.) Know how your putt (and your characters) will break. And the right bit of dialogue will sink the ball into the cup every time. At least that's why I keep talking to
my ball. (Go in! Go in!)
Writing as yoga:
Corpse Pose. Also known as the nap. Performed correctly, this pose enables a writer to solve complex plot problems and find missing scenes. This pose may also be used to fake actual death should someone ask you to read their 75,000 word picture book manuscript. But you'll have a tough time explaining those short shorts. (Really, they're literary!
The Guardian publishes them!)What about you? How is writing like your favorite sport? Liz is playing this game today, too.
Go see her!P.S. I'm doing a roundup post here on Saturday, so if you have a blog entry that deals with "The Exercise of Writing" or you interviewed a writer who mentioned their physical routine or you read a book that developed this theme---or even if you want to scramble and write a reaction post double-quick---please
send me the link.
It's Double Team Day! I'm quizzing Liz here, while she's got me covered at her place.
***********************************************
Here she is in a moment of yogini calm, a photo taken several years ago, in which she describes herself as:
"VERY pregnant with baby number 2, doing yoga with baby number 1." And that folks, is how seriously she takes her physical endeavors.
Here we go...
1) About
those quotes in yesterday's post. Care to reflect on them? Do you have a part of your body that you feel your writing comes from?
Yep. For me, too, writing needs to be from the body in order to be ‘harmonious’. The thing about writing from just my brain is that it can sound too un-squeaky. All craft, no heart, if that makes sense. For me, there are different stages of writing. Gut, shoulder blades, rib cage. It doesn’t always feel good – I sometimes want to suppress the fluttery feeling or squeeze of it – but I am absolutely certain that there is something rich happening when I’m embodying it that way. When I simply come up with an idea and craft it, without anything that resembles a panic attack or lung constriction, it inevitably falls flat on the page.2) What's your favorite physical activity and what have you learned from it about life and writing?
I have a dual activity lifestyle – running and yoga. These provide the perfect balance of outdoor and indoor activity, building and stretching, heart pumping and lung opening, extroversion and introversion. I have learned, from running, that a partner makes the effort easier and more fun and gives me something external to live up to. Ditto, having writing partners. And that there is no magic – you put one foot in front of the other, working to go a little further or a little faster week after week. Ditto, writing – one word after another after another. It’s the only way I know to get a draft down on the page. And also from running, that even if I don’t want to start, I never, ever regret it when I’m finished. Ditto, writing. The first five minutes are always the hardest. Yoga? I’ve learned that, in the end, it’s just me – my mind and body – that I’ve got to reckon with and count on. Ditto, writing. The partners and community and support make the long slog easier but it’s just me and my mat, errr – my page, in the end. And I’ve learned that some days are easier than others and sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason behind that. Progress isn’t always linear or logical. I have to meet myself where I’m at each day. Ditto, of course, writing. And I’ve learned that even if I don’t want to start…. Yep. Same lesson as running. And writing. That one needs learning over and over again.3) Do you feel that exercise is essential to your mental health? (I do!)
Whoa, boy. Don’t even know where I’d be (except that it might have the word ‘institution’ in the title) if I didn’t get my fix.4) Is there a sport/activity that you want to try, but haven't?
Over the years I’ve tried lots – everything from Nia to Masters’ swimming to climbing fourteeners to pilates. I’d still climb peaks if I lived in the mountains. I wish I like pilates but I’m kind of wimpy that way. I think the answer is, I’ll try almost anything once or thrice but I feel sure that I’ve already found the combination of things that really work for me, physically and mentally/emotionally.5) Why do you think you're better at certain sports than other kinds? Certain forms of writing than other forms?
The only thing I can’t abide (and I know I’ll probably have rotten tomatoes thrown at me for this) are team sports. My hand/eye coordination is pathetic, which puts me at a disadvantage in terms of any ball sports and I hate feeling the pressure of a team. All my favorites are individual activities that don’t involve hoops or nets or goals. I like to depend upon – and compete against, I guess, myself. Writing – I am better at the lyrical than the narrative. I am more about sound and image and metaphor than I am about conflict. I love characters but I’m not very good at getting them to do anything. Which is kind of ironic considering this series on exercise, isn’t it?6) Are you competitive? In sports or in writing?
I don’t know, but I wish I could say “no”. I think that feels more yogic. And more righteous. But alas. I always say that my only aim is to finish a race but then I watch the clock and try to shave off minutes in the end. And writing? I’ve gotten better about this. I used to really suffer from jealousy, but now I feel genuinely happy for other people’s successes. I think I am more driven than competitive. I try very much to make it me against me, rather than me against you. Wanna arm wrestle?
7) Is there an athlete or teacher that you admire?
I admire so many athletes who do powerful and beautiful and unfathomable things with their bodies. When I was a kid I was obsessed with the speed skaters Eric and Beth Heiden. I really love the yoga teacher David Swenson for the humor and humanity he incorporates into teaching. And there’s an amazing runner here in Austin called Gilber Tuhaboyne who survived civil war in his native Burundi and now he runs and teaches and inspires people in a big, big way. I love athletes for whom athletics are about big things like hope… peace… community. 8) What's your favorite yoga pose?
Downward dog. It tends to everything that needs tending – back, legs, shoulder girdle. And I get a nice little rosy head rush from it. I love me a little dog… (Me, too, Liz, me too!)9) What keeps you going when you're tired? How do you motivate yourself?
Kombucha and a handful of almonds? Let me think. Sometimes I guess I don’t keep going. I’m a fan of the 15 minute nap. Motivation, though, when things are going well, just happens. Y’know how you will read until 3 in the morning when the book is just that good. I think work – writing – can be that way too. Even when my eyes are bleeding, I can’t stop. That can make the next morning’s run pretty grisly, though.
10) What would you say to those who hate their own bodies and/or hate their own writing?
Oh, man. I’d say, “I’ve been there.” But. But. I think I’d also say it’s just not worth it. I mean, I know this isn’t deeply and emotionally astute, but self-loathing, on a physical or creative level, is really unproductive. And the real way to talk yourself out of the loathing is to do something fabulous with what you’ve got. That may mean taking a brisk walk around the block or trying trapeze flying or climbing Kilimanjaro. It may mean writing morning pages or joining a critique group or finally submitting something to an editor. Doing something, I think, is always better than doing nothing. There is so much pleasure in discovering what it is we’re all capable of, don’t you think?
I do think so, and thanks, Liz! That was a lot of ground to cover....I'm going to go rest now...
(Don't forget to go to Liz's blog today. I believe I'm booked over there as the half-time entertainment!)
"I think the healthy thing for man---for reflective nature---is to think with the whole body; then you get a full harmonious thought, like violin strings, vibrating in unison with the hollow box. But I think that when thoughts come from the brain alone...they are like tunes played on the squeaky part of the first string..." Stephane Mallarme, writing to Eugene Lefebre, May 17, 1867
I stumbled upon that magnificent quote many years ago in the book
Finding Your Writer's Voice by Thaisa Frank and Dorothy Wall. The authors go on to say:
"Like Mallarme, you can make your voice resonate from different parts of your body...Imagine that your entire body is a vehicle for speech and sound---a luminous and versatile transmitter. Let your stomach write a paragraph. Then your heart. Now let your forehead speak. Does your writing change as your body focus shifts? Are the rhythms different? The emotions? The sounds?"
I've been an exercise addict for years now. I'm a much more disciplined and intuitive athlete than I am a writer. All right, I didn't start out so disciplined...
...but hey, my instincts were to make that couch work for
me and not the other way round, you know?
It continued with my love of gym class. P.E. was fun for me---we did jump rope, and square dancing, and learned how to play volleyball and had races. I treasured the ribbons I won at field day, and competed vigorously to earn the coveted Presidential Physical Fitness Award.
Field Day Loot
In college, I took classes in modern dance, fencing, and racquetball. I rode my bike to class. My husband and I went on hikes as dates. After college, I joined the aerobic dance craze and did Jazzercize. When I got pregnant, I walked for miles and miles and asked my mother-in-law to insert a stretch panel into the belly of my favorite leotard. There's a picture of me, somewhere, after my daughter was born, with her on my stomach while I'm doing sit-ups. In the years since, I've tried skiing, boxing, yoga, weight-lifting, spinning, boot camp, running, golf, ballroom dancing, and Pilates.
Oh, how I wish I had been writing all those years with the same intensity that I was exercising! What masterworks I could have produced! But somehow, it took me years and years before I transferred the wisdom of my body to my writing life.
What my body told me:
1) Have fun.
2) Be brave.
3) Go beyond what you think you can do.
4) Don't worry if you mess up. You'll get it, eventually.
5) Nourish yourself. It's not optional; you must do it to stay strong.
6) Cut out the negative self-talk. Turn your critic into a coach.
7) You must be willing to look silly to learn something new.
8) Focus. Pay attention to the sun on your face, to the sting as your hand hits the bag, to the changes in your breathing. What you're doing right now is beautiful; everything else can wait.
I think the most important thing I learned was that my body was not my enemy. It was my teacher and my best ally. It knew more about what I could do than my head did.
Me, learning from my friend, Popeye
Likewise, good writing comes from what we know in our bones to be true. No matter how blocked or frustrated our minds are, our bodies know what we want to say. They're charged with it; they store every hurt and hope; and they literally
are the instruments that produce our voices. (Why do you think they call it "body language"?)
You don't have to be a fitness addict like me to learn something from your body. Try this: open and close your hands several times, so you make fists, and then release them.
I can't tell you what will happen next. But your body just said something to you. Listen. Write it down. Everything else can wait.
SWOOSH!
There goes Liz... blogging about skiing and writing, and running and writing, and just what she and I could possibly mean by the "physicality of writing." My favorite SWOOSH? This one:
"My own big fat prize.
Not the Olympics.
Not a college scholarship.
Just the totally exhilarating sense of working hard at something and makin’ it happen."
Go on and take your writer self for a run down Liz's mountain. She's an excellent guide.
The full schedule for our week of co-blogging is here. I'll be back tomorrow...gotta go catch up with Liz now. Dang, that girl's a blur!
Liz Scanlon (Liz in Ink) and I are co-blogging all this week! I'm so pumped about it, I can hardly sit still, but that's a good thing, because we're going to be talking up....
The Exercise of Writing
Yup. We're just that crazy. Here's the short version of the schedule. But RUN on over to Liz's and read the full version
right here.
Monday: Hit the starting blocks at Liz in Ink
Tuesday: Out of the gate at Read Write Believe
Wednesday: Half-time entertainment
Sara Strong-Arms It – here at Liz in Ink
Liz Lifts and Lunges – at Read Write Believe
Thursday: The Olympics – A round-up of sports posts and analogies (at both blogs)
Friday: The Fifth Quarter – Poetry Friday (at both blogs)
Ready, set....GO to
Liz's place and get the full game plan right now!
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