Eatymologies
Historical Notes on Culinary Terms
by William Sayers
Paperback (Published)
(March 2015)
ISBN: 9781909248380
5.47 x 8.43 inches
Price: $30.00
In stock
Although food historians can rely on written evidence to provide them with early recipes and references to dishes that might have been, the only other sources available to them are archaeology (which never preserves a trifle intact), art history (which doesn’t go back that far) or the history of language – for the names of things will often tell much about their origins. Food enthusiasts will, therefore, spend much time recounting how a dish got its name, but often they will be peddling nonsense or mythology. William Sayers is a specialist in medieval European languages with an interest in the vocabulary of trades, crafts, and culinary arts, and in this this essay collection he explores the possible origins of a variety of culinary words and others which may be associated with them. His broad grasp of languages and their literatures allows him to cover more than simply the culinary terms on which he focuses, whether it be scullion or cod, haggis or frumenty. His endnotes and bibliography reinforce this further, citing Irish legal tracts on beekeeping, studies of the prevalence of Basque words in pidgin languages of the Atlantic coast of North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and a collection of Anglo-Saxon riddle songs. Food history is a tremendously rich area of enquiry and this book explores nooks and crannies that have not been properly mapped up to now. The author’s careful explorations highlight the difficulties of unraveling etymologies at centuries-long remove, making book provides a reliable and endlessly interesting resource for scholars and food enthusiasts alike.
- By (author) William Sayers
Similar Books
A Collaborative Tapestry in Honour of Shirley Ann Brown / Une fresque brodée en l’honneur de Shirley Ann Brown
The Bayeux Tapestry Seen by her Colleagues and Friends / La Tapisserie de Bayeux vue par ses collègues et amis
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
John Dunstaple Reading Boethius
John Dunstaple’s Annotations to Boethius’s “De institutione musica” in the Manuscript Oxford, Corpus Christi College Library, MS 118
Linguistic and Cultural Dynamics in a Frontier Society
New Perspectives on Northeastern Bavaria and Western Bohemia in the Early Middle Ages
Volume 9
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Power and Women in Southeast and Central Europe in Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (1300-1600)
Volume 10
The Anglo-Norman Bible’s Books of Kings, a Critical Edition
(BL Royal 1 C III, fols 234r-274v)
Volume 37
The Embodied Court in the Premodern World
Understanding the Physicality, Performativity and Lifecycle of Bodies at Court in Europe and Beyond, 1400-1800
Volume 4
