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
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
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
Women in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Studies from Western Europe and North Africa
Volume 44
Los oficios de los diplomas latinos de la Cataluna altomedieval
Estudio de las innovaciones lexicas: XI Premio Internacional de Tesis Doctorales Fundacion Ana Maria Aldama Roy de Estudios Latinos
Volume 106
A Communication Ethic of Dialogic Reformation
Nicholas of Cusa on Care for Communities in Crisis
Volume 106
Ambiguum 10 of Maximus the Confessor in Modern Study
Papers collected on the Occasion of the Budapest Colloquium on Saint Maximus, 3-4 February 2021
Volume 97
Building the Presence of the Prince
The Institutions Responsible for the Construction and Management of the Buildings of European Courts (14th-17th centuries)
Volume 14
Byzantine Historiographical Prefaces (4th-15th Centuries)
A Study on Praxis and Culture of Writing History in Byzantium
Volume 23
Ceramics in Plain Sight: The Bacini of the Churches of Crete. “Reflections” of the Late Medieval and the Early Modern Material Culture of the Island
Volume II: The Regional Unit of Lasithi
Volume 13