The Stories Behind Food Names | Otherwords

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  • Опубликовано: 24 авг 2022
  • Check out RELISH on @PBSFood: • Relish with Chef Yia Vang
    It shouldn't matter what a food is called as long as it tastes good, right? Well, maybe not.
    Otherwords is a PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and fınds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fıelds of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human.
    Host: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
    Creator/Director: Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham
    Writer: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
    Producer: Katie Graham
    Editor/Animation: Andrew Matthews
    Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
    Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy
    Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
    Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
    Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell
    Stock Images from Shutterstock
    Music from APM Music
    Otherwords is produced by Spotzen for PBS.
    © 2022 PBS. All rights reserved.

Комментарии • 678

  • @himesilva
    @himesilva Год назад +978

    Extra fact: “urchin” is the Middle English word for hedgehog. Sea Urchin makes a lot of sense when you realize it’s “sea hedgehog”

    • @kellydalstok8900
      @kellydalstok8900 Год назад +66

      In Dutch and German they’re called sea-hedgehog

    • @mds_main
      @mds_main Год назад +38

      In Italian it is also the literal translation of "sea hedgehog".

    • @diamondsngunns88
      @diamondsngunns88 Год назад +6

      This is so cool!! 🤗❤️🌊

    • @shockingheaven
      @shockingheaven Год назад +10

      @@kellydalstok8900 Same for Spanish

    • @ChrisPool
      @ChrisPool Год назад +34

      So a Street Urchin or homeless child is called so because of unkept wild hair? A street hedgehog?

  • @MattJammer
    @MattJammer Год назад +439

    The idea that people tried to change sauerkraut to freedom cabbage is just the funniest thing to me. I needed to pause the video to stop laughing

    • @jakepullman4914
      @jakepullman4914 Год назад +5

      Some things never change, I guess.

    • @MemphiStig
      @MemphiStig Год назад +20

      And they called German soldiers Krauts because of the food. So it's a strange switch.

    • @itsgonnabeanaurfromme
      @itsgonnabeanaurfromme Год назад +2

      ....really?

    • @chanterelle483
      @chanterelle483 Год назад +9

      The freedom frisbees did it for me.

    • @flowertrue
      @flowertrue Год назад

      The word krrrraut is just too fun to say

  • @piotrszewczuk4382
    @piotrszewczuk4382 Год назад +857

    In Poland recently a lot of people try to rename "pierogi ruskie" to "pierogi ukraińskie" (due to the Russia's invasion of Ukraine), it's very interesting bc "ruskie" doesnt mean Russian, but Ruthenian

    • @KillsAll.
      @KillsAll. Год назад

      Dang I wonder if they’re still called a White Russian or a Black Russian?

    • @pandoraeeris7860
      @pandoraeeris7860 Год назад +154

      Sir, this is a Wenduskie's.

    • @JeighNeither
      @JeighNeither Год назад +50

      Right, but "ruskie" does mean Russian in American English, although it is a bit of a dated term.

    • @JeighNeither
      @JeighNeither Год назад +15

      @@Itsgay2read Why did you capitalize "Wild"? & is it really wild after Russia invaded Ukraine w/o provocation 6 months ago? Especially when this video is about this exact subject?

    • @xp_studios7804
      @xp_studios7804 Год назад +24

      the Ruthenians can't catch a break lol

  • @lyndsaybrown8471
    @lyndsaybrown8471 Год назад +26

    The puns are on this channel are always top tier.

  • @jacool2565
    @jacool2565 Год назад +250

    In Spanish we only have the alive-dead distinction in food for fish. A fish swimming in the sea is "pez", but once it's in a platter it's "pescado" (Literally means fished or caught)

    • @david2869
      @david2869 Год назад +38

      And it's weird that in English we don't have that distinction. We don't even distinguish between one fish or many fish or between the act of catching fish and the fish themselves.

    • @PabloSanchez-qu6ib
      @PabloSanchez-qu6ib Год назад +7

      Diablos! Hice el mismo comentario solo para descubrir que ya estaba hecho.

    • @jacool2565
      @jacool2565 Год назад +1

      @@PabloSanchez-qu6ib Jaja ntp suele pasar

    • @DavidCruickshank
      @DavidCruickshank Год назад +11

      @@david2869 Though weirdly enough we do distinguish between one species of fish and many species of fishes.

    • @rna8arnold
      @rna8arnold Год назад +8

      @@DavidCruickshank that's very fishy 😉

  • @teucer915
    @teucer915 Год назад +221

    You're missing a fun but of trivia about Columbus: he also brought back what came to be called "Jamaica pepper" and actually kinda looks like a large peppercorn. It's still called that in Spanish to this day (pimienta de jamaica), but in modern English we call it "allspice".

    • @ectooo
      @ectooo Год назад +5

      omg! is that why? oh, wow.

    • @Scarabola
      @Scarabola Год назад +3

      This reads like the intro to an epic animated series.

    • @khasab6124
      @khasab6124 Год назад +2

      Also called that in Portuguese

    • @hopsiepike
      @hopsiepike Год назад +6

      While in Jamaica, they are called pimento!

    • @seajelly2421
      @seajelly2421 Месяц назад

      Oh, I'd always wondered why allspice is called piment de Jamaïque in French. How did it become a Middle Eastern staple spice?

  • @winminexp
    @winminexp Год назад +359

    I think Chinese name “qiyiquo” is actually name after “kiwi fruit”. “Mihoutao” (獼猴桃, macaque peach) is what’s originally called. However, when they imported kiwi fruits back to China, they adopted the name and marketed it as “qiyiquo” (奇異果,mystery fruit. Kiwi sounds like qiyi, right?)

    • @kkfvjk
      @kkfvjk Год назад +26

      The graphic also inverted the tone sign over 果 where it should be pointed downward instead of ô

    • @jungleng
      @jungleng Год назад +22

      I would totally buy a fruit just coz it's called macaque peach or monkey peach too…

    • @Syumza
      @Syumza Год назад +8

      @@kkfvjk in other words, ǒ

    • @oldcowbb
      @oldcowbb Год назад +5

      The name is more obviously translated from kiwi in Cantonese, 奇異(kay-yi)

    • @biggusballuz5405
      @biggusballuz5405 Год назад +12

      Kiwis are originally known as Macaque peach/pear indeed, and also 毛梨 hairy pears, sheep or sun pears 羊/陽桃, as well as Wood Fruit 木子 and Hairy Wood Fruit 毛木果.
      The reason they are marketed as Kiwis is because the fruit isn't that widely consumed outside of Chinese medicine.

  • @AdarshKumar-nj7rp
    @AdarshKumar-nj7rp Год назад +71

    Fun Fact about the etymology of Bombay Duck:
    The fish used to be snapped predominantly in Bombay (Mumbai), in the west coast, but was truly appreciated in Calcutta (Kolkata), in the east coast. It used to be shipped through the train in the mail freight along with letters and parcels, collectively called "Daak" in Bengali. The word daak got corrupted into duck.

    • @FZ-bk9kh
      @FZ-bk9kh Год назад +9

      Fascinating! Thanks for sharing

    • @visheshl
      @visheshl Год назад +9

      So bombay duck is actually bombay fish, but when shipped to calcutta, it was literally bombay daak or a package/parcel from bombay. And then it becomes bombay duck...from bombay daak... interesting...also bengal/ calcutta have a sweet dessert called sondesh...means letter...
      Do you have an explanation why calcutta uses words for letters or parcels as names for food items ?
      It sounds interesting to find out about

  • @TheDuelManiacs
    @TheDuelManiacs Год назад +58

    My abuelo always said "Someone who doesn't know the difference between a burro and a burrow doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground."

    • @Lucius1958
      @Lucius1958 Год назад +6

      *"As the Holy Book says, in the Book of Holes, Chapter 1: 'And they knew not their holes, from an Ass on the ground'..."* - Firesign Theatre

    • @mrcryptozoic817
      @mrcryptozoic817 Год назад +1

      LOL. Good job! A double!

    • @allanrichardson3135
      @allanrichardson3135 Год назад +1

      I assume that your abuelo spoke English when he said that?

    • @kingjojojo1
      @kingjojojo1 Месяц назад +1

      first i was confused because i questioned in which latin country they use burro as a slang for a butt (just like peruvians and chileans use poto)

  • @animeevergreenathena
    @animeevergreenathena Год назад +225

    Oh my gosh, I didn't know that kiwis originated from China! I thought that they always came from a tropical country. Then again, China is a pretty diverse country despite what Westerners usually see it as. Thanks so much for sharing this! I think that this episode may be one of my favorites, next to the one that showcases how language and technology are interconnected with one another. :)

    • @Bozeema
      @Bozeema Год назад +11

      Also, no-one outside of the US in english speaking countries shortens kiwifruit to kiwi; that's like shortening grapefruit to grape, the meaning is completely different.

    • @flis625
      @flis625 Год назад +14

      As far as I know, New Zealand isn’t a tropical country either. They grow heaps of them there and import them to us in Australia.

    • @arnor398
      @arnor398 Год назад +9

      @@Bozeema its exactly opposite, all around the world the fruit is called kiwi/kivi or simmilar

    • @MistSoalar
      @MistSoalar Год назад +7

      If you search the origin of modern fruits we eat, you'll be surprised that so many of them are originated in China.

    • @itsgonnabeanaurfromme
      @itsgonnabeanaurfromme Год назад +18

      @@Bozeema uh no, excuse you. I don't know anyone who calls it a "kiwifruit". In my country, everyone calls them kiwis.
      Grapefruit and grapes are completely different fruits which may easily be accidentally mixed up. Nobody says "get me half a kilo of kiwis and they bring back a bird."

  • @renatocann5142
    @renatocann5142 Год назад +60

    Can't get enough of this series! Great work as always Dr B. et al ✨

    • @EmperorOfSomething
      @EmperorOfSomething Год назад +4

      My first time seeing this series and I enjoyed it quite a bit! Even the comments have a ton of information in it.

  • @AndrewMcColl
    @AndrewMcColl Год назад +79

    I do remember doing a double take at a Vegas buffet a few years back. The soda fountain had 'Kiwi juice' as an option. My reaction, an actual Kiwi (New Zealandler), was of horror at what might emerge from the dispenser. Then I remembered that Americans drop the 'fruit' and all was right with the world.
    There was a similar moment of confusion back in the 90's during an episode of Friends. Poor Ross and his kiwi allergy.

    • @rabidL3M0NS
      @rabidL3M0NS Год назад +17

      It’s such a pet peeve of mine when Americans call kiwifruit kiwis. Imagine if americans were a type of fruit.. now that I’ve said that it kinda does sound like the name of a fruit.. we’ve got tangerines, nectarines, mandarins, americans, tamarinds, persimmons.

    • @AndrewMcColl
      @AndrewMcColl Год назад +9

      @@rabidL3M0NS I don't mind it as much, I just have to remember the speaker's context. It's like when they refer to 'Lego' or 'math' - I think 'yeah nah, I know what you mean'.

    • @MondeSerenaWilliams
      @MondeSerenaWilliams Год назад +4

      Did you think it was a juice made from human or the bird?

    • @AndrewMcColl
      @AndrewMcColl Год назад +9

      @@MondeSerenaWilliams both are referred to as Kiwis here, and I was in Vegas, so... yes?

    • @tree427
      @tree427 Год назад +3

      i have kiwi allergy too cant go anywhere near new zealand

  • @sheren_b
    @sheren_b Год назад +44

    this is really fascinating how the etymology of various food names mostly comes from marketing, the prune/dried plum part probably was the most amusing bc it really is cool to be totally regular 😎

  • @TheChrisSimpson
    @TheChrisSimpson Год назад +22

    You could have added 2 more while on the Mexican dishes with interesting origins! Nacho's come from the guy who created them named Ignacio, of which nacho is a nick name. And Caesar Salad, which many assume to be named for Roman Caesar's, is actually named for its creator, Caesar Cardini, an Italian chef living in Mexico!

    • @mrcryptozoic817
      @mrcryptozoic817 Год назад +2

      Sometimes obsessively reading the comments to a presentation is as enlightening as the presentation itself. I wondered where Caesar's salad came from. And if it was Mr Agustus, it would probably have lead salt on it and garum. Bleah!!

  • @astablemultivibbrator8538
    @astablemultivibbrator8538 Год назад +55

    In the Philippines, we have 4 dishes that are quite similar to each other. Menudo, mechado, kalderata, and afritada all feature tomato sauce and may contain bell peppers, carrots, potatoes, and peas. Historically, mechado refers to the cut of meat with a wick (literally "mitsa" or "mecha") of fat in the middle. Kaldereta literally means "cooked in a pot (kaldero)". Menudo is the manner of cutting meat into bite-sized chunks. Afritada literally means "fried" because the meat was supposed to be fried first before cooking in tomato sauce. However in the modern context, their differences boil down to the type of meat. Kalderata is often associated with beef, afritada is usually chicken, and both mechado and menudo are commonly pork.

    • @samsoto6144
      @samsoto6144 Год назад +3

      That’s so interesting! In Mexico we also have a dish called Menudo but it has bits of the cow stomach and it’s actually a soup.

    • @sebamoreno2986
      @sebamoreno2986 Год назад +2

      Thats interesting, here in chile we have mechada but that just means that the meat comes in mechas, so its like stringed meat

    • @Thesmus
      @Thesmus 10 месяцев назад

      to this day, i still have trouble distinguishing which dish is which lol

    • @frankkolton1780
      @frankkolton1780 5 месяцев назад

      I enjoy cooking many different cultural foods of world and have always had a lifelong interest in word and name origins, so it's easy to see the Spanish influence in the names of these dishes.
      Menudo in Spain is a stew made with tripe (cow's stomach).
      In Mexico it is a soup that uses tripe.
      In the Philippines it is a stew that often uses either pork, or chicken, or sometimes beef liver. The Cebuano term (or Binisaya if you prefer) ginagmay, means to cut into small pieces.
      Kaldero - cauldron - caldera. Caldo - Latin root caldus, heat, warm or hot.
      I love watching Pinoy cooking videos on RUclips, most give instructions mixing Tagalog and English in the same sentence, they do so effortlessly. I slowly pick up some Tagalog that way.

  • @thelocalstumbler
    @thelocalstumbler Год назад +56

    One of my favorite stories is how sandwich came about possibly because it was named after someone who used to be the Earl of Sandwich. Imagine if he had been the Earl of any other town!

    • @Nydaruus
      @Nydaruus Год назад +3

      Ahahaha

    • @Beedo_Sookcool
      @Beedo_Sookcool Год назад +7

      The Earl of Nantwich invented a snack which was the dampest leftover thing in his fridge slapped between two of the driest leftover things in his fridge. Unsurprisingly, it didn't catch on. (As outlined in one of the earlier editions of "The Meaning of Liff" by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.)

    • @toastyanon8902
      @toastyanon8902 Год назад +13

      I’ve heard the story as well! The Earl didn’t want to leave his poker games for dinner, so he had his dinner brought to him between bread - the easier to eat with a handful of cards!

    • @Beedo_Sookcool
      @Beedo_Sookcool Год назад +7

      @@toastyanon8902 "Saturday Night Live" did THE MOST HILARIOUS sketch about all these common things named after aristocrats. If you search RUclips for "SNL Earl of Sandwich," it'll be the first video thrown out. But the title won't mention the Earl of Sandwich, and it kind of gives away the whole joke. Fair warning. 😉

    • @eddierayvanlynch6133
      @eddierayvanlynch6133 Год назад +5

      @@Beedo_Sookcool
      Imo, it's one of the top five sketches from the original cast.
      (Great recommendation, btw)
      👍🤣

  • @indigohalf
    @indigohalf Год назад +20

    In much the same way that stores had to find the right name for the kiwifruit, the oh-so-exotic avocado was once sold in the US under the name "alligator pear."

    • @alvingoh8084
      @alvingoh8084 Год назад +3

      The Chinese name of avocado is 鳄梨 literally translates to “alligator pear”lmao now I know why it is called this way in Chinese

    • @msjkramey
      @msjkramey Год назад +2

      ​@@alvingoh8084 isn't turkey literally "fire chicken," too? That's all I remember from helping out a student in his Chinese class

    • @alvingoh8084
      @alvingoh8084 Год назад

      @@msjkramey yes it is

    • @allanrichardson3135
      @allanrichardson3135 Год назад +1

      One etymology of “avocado” that I read said that Spanish explorers thought the native word for the fruit sounded like the Spanish word for “attorney,” “abogado.” Which itself comes from the Latin “advocatus,” from “ad-“ meaning toward and “vocare” meaning to call or speak, which is “advocate” in English.

  • @blue_champignon5738
    @blue_champignon5738 Год назад +38

    Spanish Tapas come from the verb tapar: "to cover" and depending on who's asking it's either Spanish monarchs who got wine glasses with a snack to cover their drink or farmers who covered their drinks with food to prevent flies from getting in

    • @mychkineplot7677
      @mychkineplot7677 Год назад +1

      To prevent flies for getting it ? It was for the flies to be attracted by the food and not to go in the drink ?
      It was for flies ?!!!🤯

    • @jesuscoutofandino6280
      @jesuscoutofandino6280 Год назад +2

      There are a lot of theories about the origin of the name, and none of them are very well documented. One I've read long ago was a law by I dont remember which King making it an order that inns didnt serve wine without food to try to avoid drunkeness, specially on wagon drivers and post messengers.
      Also helps that wine was traditionally not served in glasses, which were expensive and rare, but bowls. Still doest, today, if you go to some places. So the small bowl of wine would be covered with a dish of more less the same size. So it would very much look like a cover lid on the bowl. But again, while that seems straightfoward, the origin of the custom is, well, pick one of the dozen of tales :)

  • @Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache
    @Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache Год назад +21

    I think I took up cooking because learning recipes from around the world is like a crash course in learning a culture and history.

  • @jujutaylor2186
    @jujutaylor2186 Год назад +8

    The fish renaming makes sense. I applaud that

  • @alexanderhay7358
    @alexanderhay7358 Год назад +4

    i love it when a video actually features a host with the appropriate doctorate...

  • @ChurchillGeoff
    @ChurchillGeoff Год назад +12

    word of advice, in New Zealand don't try to ask for Kiwi at the supermarket, its a protected species, this has lead to many awkward conversations with Americans overseas when they ask me (a kiwi) if I want a kiwi, no thanks I already am one

    • @kingjojojo1
      @kingjojojo1 Месяц назад

      then what is it called over there? chinese gooseberry?

  • @AuliaAF
    @AuliaAF Год назад +77

    Indonesia still manages to differentiate the peppers. As we already had different words for piper pepper (merica or lada) and chili pepper (cabai), the renaming doesn't stick. Even when written in English, we often use chilli (only) instead of chilli pepper, and the pepper part may cause confusion. So if you ask Indonesian, "Is it pepper?" we often answer with, "No, it's chilli."
    Meanwhile, since we don't have bellpepper, the imported bellpepper is known as "paprika" and many of us doesn't know that it's related to "chilli."

    • @JeighNeither
      @JeighNeither Год назад +5

      It's a waning Americanism tbf, w/the onslaught of food culture & average Americans knowing a bit more about the world around them thanks to Google.

    • @guidoylosfreaks
      @guidoylosfreaks Год назад +5

      So we do in Spanish. There are "chiles" and all the different types of chiles: serrano, guajillo, chipotle, jalapeño, piquín, de árbol, manzano, poblano... etc. And there's also "pimienta" which is a completely different thing.
      Once I stayed with a Pakistani family in Toronto and they said their food was hot. But when I tried it all it had was black pepper, not bad but not what I expected.

    • @blankonga
      @blankonga Год назад

      @@guidoylosfreaks nop they do it on Mexican Spanish

    • @lakrids-pibe
      @lakrids-pibe Год назад +11

      Yeah it bothers me when the word "pepper" is used for everything.
      Same with "spice". Cinnamon, cardamom and ginger are also spices.
      You want spicy food? Here's a cinnamon bun for you. And a vanilla milkshake.

    • @PabloSanchez-qu6ib
      @PabloSanchez-qu6ib Год назад +1

      @@lakrids-pibe it's an English language problem, there isn't a word for "picante" and you have to use "spicy" or "hot" instead. Imagine a poor Mexican confidently digging into the soup laughing off the gringos that told him it was hot just to burn his tongue off.

  • @paiwanhan
    @paiwanhan Год назад +16

    Well... the name Qiyiguo (Qiyi fruit) is just a reverse loanword from the commercial branding of the fruit to kiwi. Mihoutao (Macaques' peach) is the original name of the fruit. It's also called Maoli (furry pear), Tengli (Vine pear), Yangtao (Goat peach). Even the word salt has an odd etymology.

  • @julieblair7472
    @julieblair7472 Год назад +32

    Urchin is interesting also because it is an older term for hedgehog. "Street urchin" always confused me until I knew this, since a sea urchin being sneaky or mischievous makes no sense but a hedgehog definitely does.

    • @michaelimhof4212
      @michaelimhof4212 Год назад +4

      Good to know! In German, sea urchins are called "Seeigel" (sea hedgehogs), and I've always been confused by the English word seemingly missing the obvious connection to hedgehogs. - Personally, I would favour "seahog" ;-).

    • @RevelationsPrimo
      @RevelationsPrimo Год назад +1

      I'm gonna start saying "I'm a real street whore's eggs" instead of street urchin

    • @eddierayvanlynch6133
      @eddierayvanlynch6133 Год назад +3

      Hedgehogs - why can't they share?
      ... I'll see myself out...

  • @Rahru
    @Rahru Год назад +40

    Portuguese as some of the craziest dish names. I love 'steak on horseback' (bife a cavalo) - which is just steak with a fried egg on top - and 'mired cow' (vaca atolada) - a sort of beef and yuca/cassava/manioc stew. There's even a pie dough type that's called 'rotten dough' (massa podre), which is obviously delicious (I believe it's the same dough used for quiches).

    • @200Misaki002
      @200Misaki002 Год назад +11

      We actually have a "steak on horseback" in Colombia too. Which is just beef with caramelized onions and a fried egg on top. We call it "bistec a caballo".
      It makes me wonder where it comes from.

    • @danidejaneiro8378
      @danidejaneiro8378 Год назад +4

      Brat’s Foot (pé-de-moleque), Good Blackie (nego bom), Little Bumpkin (caipirinha), Little Stash (escondidinho), Jaw Break (quebra-queixo)

  • @FlyToTheRain
    @FlyToTheRain Год назад +8

    I think this is one of my favorite shows in the PBS catalogue, every time I watch it I want to share it with my students because it answers so many language questions, which they have a lot of when I'm attempting to teach them reading and writing. plus history is inevitable sprinkled in with the answers too, a two for one deal!

  • @tulgeywood
    @tulgeywood Год назад +14

    As a weird bit of history: Since sweetbread can mean thymus or pancreas, there was a mix-up in the early 1900's when the Banting team was trying to decoct insulin. They had to collect sweetbreads to extract the insulin and they ended up with a whole bunch of thymuses instead of pancreases from the butcher. Nomenclature can be important.

    • @PabloSanchez-qu6ib
      @PabloSanchez-qu6ib Год назад +4

      That is why scientific jargon exists, it's not to sound important or confuse the layman (even if it is sometimes used that way)

  • @Snake3yesEddie
    @Snake3yesEddie Год назад +6

    4:42 “The fruits took off”. Aww this was a missed opportunity to say “For the 1st time Kiwi’s flew off the shelves”.

    • @rna8arnold
      @rna8arnold Год назад +1

      As a Kiwi bloke that makes me 🤣

  • @alexwixom4599
    @alexwixom4599 Год назад +5

    I know it's a Grapefruit, but every time I see the other word all I can think of is "What the hell is a Pamplemouse?!"

    • @Beedo_Sookcool
      @Beedo_Sookcool Год назад +1

      Just looked it up. Turns out it's a corruption of the Dutch way of saying "swollen lemon" or "fat lemon."

  • @HMJ66
    @HMJ66 Год назад +31

    I don't think many Brits today would call maize anything other than "corn" or "sweetcorn". If you're just eating it as is (from the cob or from a can or something) then it's sweetcorn. If it's ground and used as an ingredient to make something else, it's sometimes "maize", but still mostly "corn" (cornflour, corn tortillas, "corn snacks", popcorn, corn nuts etc. etc.)
    It may possibly be a generational thing, but I'm in my mid-30s and I've never heard anyone call corn "maize" in actual conversation, nor have I heard anyone refer to any other grain as "corn".

    • @charleighblue
      @charleighblue Год назад +2

      Thanks for this. I was so confused about that. Also from the UK, also mid 30's, also never heard someone refer to corn as maize.
      You're correct too that corn flour and meal can be called maize flour or meal - but it's not a particularly common ingredient for people to buy and is also quite often found labelled corn anyways.

    • @ILikedGooglePlus
      @ILikedGooglePlus Год назад +4

      The Great Dorset Maize Maze (Its A-Maize-ing) begs to differ
      But yeah, on farms I've heard it called maize while growing, otherwise I mainly hear corn, especially as food I've only ever heard it called corn. Possible generational thing

    • @MSilvaBarral
      @MSilvaBarral 7 месяцев назад +1

      It may be a thing among farmers? I was very confused when in Scotland they kept talking about growing corn (doesn't grow well at all that far north), only to learn they meant oats

    • @varoonnone7159
      @varoonnone7159 2 месяца назад +2

      It's called maize in all former British colonies where English is still taught in its imperial standard form
      In Mauritius, we wouldn't even know what corn is so much so that most people ignore that widely used cornflour is from maize

  • @85jacob85
    @85jacob85 Год назад +3

    The name was not shortened to kiwi in most countries. Especially here in New Zealand. We say kiwi fruit every time.

  • @Itsgay2read
    @Itsgay2read Год назад +9

    Reccao, an herb we use in Puerto Rican cooking, is believed to come for the word for runners who would get fresh herbs from the market.

  • @PokhrajRoy.
    @PokhrajRoy. Год назад +5

    Ngl I’d like to call a Pizza a ‘Freedom Frisbee’ 😂

    • @AaaronI
      @AaaronI Год назад

      Freedom Frisbee all the way

  • @nach1man
    @nach1man Год назад +1

    Omg, the "totally cool dude" part cracked me 😂😂😂 up... As always, great stuff 👌👍💯

  • @PokhrajRoy.
    @PokhrajRoy. Год назад +4

    2:49 OMG i remember learning this in my Linguistics class. It brings back happy memories.

  • @LindaC616
    @LindaC616 Год назад +20

    Has "company" been traced? In a Spanish linguistics class, we were taught that "compañero" came from "pan"(bread), as in "the person with whom you break bread"

    • @danidejaneiro8378
      @danidejaneiro8378 Год назад +10

      That would make sense as the word for bread and food were one and the same: *_company_*_ - mid-12c., "large group of people," from Old French compagnie "society, friendship, intimacy; body of soldiers" (12c.), from Late Latin companio, literally "bread fellow, messmate," from Latin com "with, together" (see com-) + panis "bread," from PIE root *pa- "to feed."_

    • @LindaC616
      @LindaC616 Год назад

      @@danidejaneiro8378 ah, thanks. Weird that bread and food were equated

    • @danidejaneiro8378
      @danidejaneiro8378 Год назад +1

      @@LindaC616 - not if you think about the history of human civilisation

    • @rna8arnold
      @rna8arnold Год назад

      That's what company means 'com' is Latin for 'with' then 'pan' means bread. Thus we have with bread = company. Then go further you have companions who are friends you eat bread with. 👍

  • @ixtacayaotl1205
    @ixtacayaotl1205 Год назад +10

    Hi! Wixárika/P'urhépecha before I reconnected with my tribe I learned Nahuatl and just wanted to drop in to correct the way you said Nahuatl. It happens a lot, but the way one would say the name of our the name of the language is Nah what, the L is silent at the end unless you wish to add a classical touch to the way one says it, then it would be Na-Wha-tl the TL make a click when said together but most of us just say Nah what

  • @JennieKermode
    @JennieKermode Год назад +3

    Fries being chips in the UK, of course, and what North Americans call chips being crisps. Although our chips are somewhat larger and less crispy, so the word 'fries' has gradually been adopted here to refer to their skinny cousins..

  • @vasp99
    @vasp99 Год назад +3

    Your info on corn is fascinating but I have to wonder how " corned " came to refer to pickled beef brisket .

    • @danic9304
      @danic9304 Год назад +3

      It's because the large grains of rock salt used to treat it were called 'corns'

    • @allangibson8494
      @allangibson8494 Год назад +1

      @@danic9304 Corned beef is actually treated with Salt Peter (natron, sodium nitrate) not rock salt.

  • @MaryAnnNytowl
    @MaryAnnNytowl Год назад +1

    Between you and RobWords, I can get my language geek on quite nicely!

  • @alphanum001
    @alphanum001 Год назад +5

    I read about the story of the kiwifruit in a Reader's Digest article when I was a kid, but I never got to eat one until decades later. That's why I still call it as kiwifruit, and just learned of the shortening to kiwi in this video.

  • @frankmenchaca9993
    @frankmenchaca9993 Год назад +1

    As Arta Johnson used to say on the Laugh in show "ver-r-ry interesting". Keep up the good work, Dr. B!

  • @lostpiperschild
    @lostpiperschild Год назад +5

    The Indian corn fact is interesting, as its still informally called 'inja corn' in Welsh but I'd never really thought what it meant. In English I'd typically call it corn on the cob or Sweetcorn, depending on how it's served.

  • @matthuck378
    @matthuck378 Год назад +2

    "Freedom fries" was hilarious. It was like that Simpsons episode with the food truck. "Falafel?" no..."Crunch patties!"

  • @grf15
    @grf15 Год назад +10

    I could listen to the Dr. all day long. She always makes the content fun and interesting.

    • @rna8arnold
      @rna8arnold Год назад

      and she is very expressive with her face and hands she would be a good ASL signer.... 👍

  • @davidpumpkinsjr.5108
    @davidpumpkinsjr.5108 Год назад +3

    I mess with people by telling them that burritos got their name because they originally contained donkey meat. They typically respond with skepticism, but there's always that little hint of belief because it sounds just true enough to be real.
    The Danish name for Danishes is "wienerbrød" which literally means "Viennese bread" because they originated in Austria.

    • @geo1729
      @geo1729 Год назад

      That’s hilarious 😂

  • @rachell1794
    @rachell1794 Год назад +3

    I really like that the famous Italian rum cake is named "zuppa inglese," which translates to "English soup" because it has so much rum xD

  • @whilykitt
    @whilykitt Год назад +1

    This show is hilarious! I'm dyslexic so I usually just skip these ones but like absolutely checking out your other videos, this is so cool!

  • @markredacted8547
    @markredacted8547 Год назад +2

    I absolutely love this Erica, I feel like you would be super interesting to have a cuppa with and talk all things linguistics. Your episodes always leave me wanting to know more great job 😁

  • @beetlesaretrying4621
    @beetlesaretrying4621 Год назад +2

    I need Other Words to write a book, every episode is gold and tickles that special part of my brain that desperately needed to know why kiwis are called kiwis!

    • @rna8arnold
      @rna8arnold Год назад

      Correction sir they are called kiwifruit - just kidding...

  • @freddyabba
    @freddyabba Год назад +2

    Great episode! A bit surprising she didn't mention that the Chinese 'qiyiguo' is a loanword from the English 'kiwifruit'

  • @sukabanfoxes
    @sukabanfoxes Год назад +2

    One of my favorite series on RUclips 🥺

  • @lauraketteridge324
    @lauraketteridge324 Год назад +3

    In the UK, we normally call it 'corn on the cob' or 'sweetcorn'.

  • @StCrimson667
    @StCrimson667 Год назад +4

    Oh, funny thing about food names in Canada! XD Canada actually have VERY stringent food standards and food advertising standards and that actually, of course, has caused some problems, especially with immigrant cuisine.
    Toronto in the 60s and 70s brought in a MASSIVE wave of immigration and transformed the city from what had once been a very white, WASPy city to the cultural mosaic that it is today and, of course, immigrants would often set up food shops and sell their native cuisine. One of the first communities to do this was Jamaican immigrants, selling patties. Well, the food safety board of Ontario decided in 1985 to crack down on these new businesses and told the patty sellers of Toronto that they had to change the name "patty" because, in Ontario food standards, a "patty" is made of meat, fat, and spices with nothing else added and, since Jamaican patties were wrapped in pastry, they couldn't sell them as "patties" so they had to either change the name or face fines for false advertising.
    This, of course, infuriated Toronto's Jamaican community, to the point of even contacting the Jamaican embassy to complain about it so much that the Jamaican embassy almost couldn't function from all the calls! XD This was especially bad because it just so happened that the Prime Minister at the time, Brian Mulroney, was due to have a diplomatic trip to Jamaica and this issue had even made it to the FRONT PAGE of Jamaican newspapers! Needless to say, a solution needed to be found before the trip so representatives from the food safety board and the Jamaican patty sellers sat down and the patty sellers eventually proposed a solution, they would specify that they were selling "Jamaican patties" and so would not be in violation of the food safety standards. The food safety board agreed and so hence Jamaican-style patties are known as "Jamaican patties" are here and have since become a beloved food all across the province. If you want to know how beloved, I grew up in a backwater, poverty-riddled city and my high school cafeteria sold Jamaican patties to the students, they were probably the third most popular food there after the pizza and french fries!

  • @luisespineira9882
    @luisespineira9882 Год назад +3

    Interesting as always Erica. Great job. 👏👏👏

  • @RenatoTartuce
    @RenatoTartuce Год назад +1

    I love this show so much! Very helpful to use in class!

  • @emmajauernig2080
    @emmajauernig2080 10 месяцев назад +1

    My favorite unexpected food etymology is the word “ketchup” which likely comes from a Hokkien word for a sauce made of pickled fish brine. When the word first came into use in English, it usually referred to any sauce made by mixing spices with other ingredients, which often included mushrooms or soy sauce. Somewhere along the line tomatoes got mixed up in all this and we have ketchup as we know it today.

  • @austingreen1274
    @austingreen1274 Год назад +1

    Just discovered your channel. Verrrry informative!

  • @michaelkawano1951
    @michaelkawano1951 Год назад +1

    Love the episode, love the channel, and love you!

  • @chrisbrathwaite9393
    @chrisbrathwaite9393 Год назад +3

    My favorite little food thing is the tropical fruit that I grew up calling ackee, but is apparently ONLY called that in Barbados. Every other english speaking caribbean island calls them gineps (spanish speaking ones call them quinepa). Ackee is instead a whole other fruit in the same family on other islands

  • @flashrogue4376
    @flashrogue4376 Год назад

    I get so excited everytime your videos pop up in my feed..
    I wish I had more like buttons to smash

  • @adrianblake8876
    @adrianblake8876 Год назад +3

    5:50 In hebrew prunes (and plums in general) always had their moment in the sun, as the words for plum and the sun's gaze have the same root. (And the Hebrew Language Academy uses the same image of a plum sunbathing due to this on its webpage...)

  • @Nygaard2
    @Nygaard2 Год назад +2

    Freedom Frisbee would be an AWESOME name for a dish!

  • @matthewjkhill6657
    @matthewjkhill6657 Год назад +2

    Hey Dr. B, when are we going to get another Otherwords video? They're great!

  • @purplealice
    @purplealice Год назад +1

    Worf: "Prune juice.... a warrior's drink."

  • @dalekman8945
    @dalekman8945 Год назад +2

    This channel rocks. great ep!

  • @reichen666
    @reichen666 Год назад +1

    oh I just love this channel !
    And Dr. Erica is such a cool & amazing educator ! And she looks like a Filipina ! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍💖

  • @moonhunter9993
    @moonhunter9993 Год назад +1

    Absolutely hilarious and great information!

  • @CaineDM1955
    @CaineDM1955 Год назад +8

    I'd heard long ago that "PUMPERNICKEL" had a Germanic origin.
    According to this story, 'pumper' was an old-fashioned word for "breaking wind", & one of many euphemisms for the Devil was "Old Nick", so from this, we conclude that this member of the Rye family of bread-grains was so VERY coarse that it could cause even "Old Nick" himself to fart!

  • @edwardrhoades6957
    @edwardrhoades6957 2 месяца назад

    5:40 "Prune juice, chilled. A warrior's drink."

  • @drzecelectric4302
    @drzecelectric4302 Год назад

    Love this. Thanks!

  • @PokhrajRoy.
    @PokhrajRoy. Год назад +1

    Omg this was so much fun. A great video 👏🏽

  • @tehguitarque
    @tehguitarque Год назад

    6:04 suddenly it's the 90s and my bowels are moving quickly to the beat as I contemplate the uni I am about to eat.

  • @PokhrajRoy.
    @PokhrajRoy. Год назад +14

    I’m so intrigued by this episode. The Bengali word for ‘tea’ is ‘cha’ which is also the Mandarin word for it.

    • @animitasaha2245
      @animitasaha2245 Год назад +6

      Not just that I think tea is also called cha in Korean and Japanese. Also, 'chai' which is Hindi for tea is also chai in Russian. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

    • @Beedo_Sookcool
      @Beedo_Sookcool Год назад +4

      Also used in Britain a lot. When there used to be someone in offices to make tea and bring it around to the office workers, she was called the "charlady."

    • @pandoraeeris7860
      @pandoraeeris7860 Год назад +7

      So three cups of tea is 'cha cha cha'?

    • @aegresen
      @aegresen Год назад +5

      That likely is due to the high amount of trade between the Chinese and Indian subcontinent population. Words have a way of entering the lexicon due to trade. Glass/Gilash[Hindi/Nepali] is another example of word transference due to trade.

    • @filopat67
      @filopat67 Год назад +3

      People who got their tea via the Silk Road call it by variations of chai, people who got their tea by ships call it by variations of tea.

  • @berserkirclaws107
    @berserkirclaws107 Год назад +3

    Aren't we easy to manipulate 🤣🤣🤣
    Another great video from PBS 👍

  • @jonathanwilliams6913
    @jonathanwilliams6913 Год назад

    I actually lol'd at "Freedom Frisbee". 🤣

  • @DistrarSubvoyikar
    @DistrarSubvoyikar Год назад +1

    In some dialects of Spanish, taco means "shoe", so i always thought the food was called taco because some people thought of it as a shoe for meat

  • @Anaguma79
    @Anaguma79 Год назад +5

    3:47 The Welsh are British. You're looking for "the English."

    • @ldbarthel
      @ldbarthel Год назад

      You did NOT just say that. Just because Britain annexed Wales does not make the Welsh "British".
      (Says the man who's in-laws are Welsh...)

    • @WanderTheNomad
      @WanderTheNomad Год назад +1

      @@ldbarthel What's the difference between the English and the British then?

    • @Anaguma79
      @Anaguma79 Год назад

      @@ldbarthel ruclips.net/video/rNu8XDBSn10/видео.html

    • @Lucius1958
      @Lucius1958 Год назад +1

      @@WanderTheNomad 'British': essentially Celtic peoples, who inhabited the British isles before the Roman occupation. That makes the Welsh, imho, British: Old Welsh is a Celtic language, closely akin to Old British.
      'English': Germanic peoples, who immigrated and occupied Britain after the Romans left.

    • @eddierayvanlynch6133
      @eddierayvanlynch6133 Год назад

      This thread was (pun intended) excellent food for thought
      Thanks for posting

  • @kaushalsuvarna5156
    @kaushalsuvarna5156 Год назад +1

    I love this host, and the title track, very addictive

  • @jasonwhite3101
    @jasonwhite3101 10 месяцев назад

    The Welsh Rabbit my Father made always contained Worcestershire Sauce also.
    Great episode as always
    Thanks ✌

  • @13thravenpurple94
    @13thravenpurple94 Год назад

    Great work 🥳 Thank you 💜

  • @JeighNeither
    @JeighNeither Год назад +1

    You just know Dr. Brozovsky would be a blast to have around at parties... as long as they're not Scrabble parties.

  • @crushivintage
    @crushivintage Год назад +2

    Wonderful hostess and lessons. Great content! I love it.

  • @pookalobster3
    @pookalobster3 Год назад +7

    This is awesome!! As a chef and aspiring linguist this checks all my boxes!!!!

  • @NZDLo
    @NZDLo Год назад +4

    Kiwi fruit are not called “kiwis” in all Western countries - NZ calls them kiwifruit. Primarily because “kiwi” refers to either the bird or the people here.

    • @allangibson8494
      @allangibson8494 Год назад

      Ditto in Australia. Probably because half the New Zealand population lives there (at least periodically).

  • @MrGotropic
    @MrGotropic Год назад +1

    BC Canadian "Dog Fish" (a small Brown Shark) Their bellies meat were cut out and smoked and sold in the UK as "Rock Salmon".

  • @rachelk4805
    @rachelk4805 Год назад

    "Totally regular" "Join the movement" is not what I expected from PBS 🤣

  • @squeaknsqurriel7060
    @squeaknsqurriel7060 Год назад +31

    When it comes to shortening the name to kiwis, that isn't something we do in New Zealand. Probably because a kiwi is what we call ourselves and our bird, so when an American says that they are eating a kiwi it sounds really weird

    • @beeveearr
      @beeveearr Год назад +8

      Horrifying if you consider it sounds like they're eating an endangered flightless bird or a human

    • @ILikedGooglePlus
      @ILikedGooglePlus Год назад +15

      In the UK, to keep it straight, we call the fruits "kiwis", the birds "Flying Kiwis", and the people "Australians"

    • @eileenbutterfly7856
      @eileenbutterfly7856 Год назад +5

      @@ILikedGooglePlus But they're not Australian.

    • @allanrichardson3135
      @allanrichardson3135 Год назад +3

      Like reading the label on a bottle of “baby oil?”

    • @mamingakuri2436
      @mamingakuri2436 Год назад +3

      @@ILikedGooglePlus and also kiwis don’t fly

  • @gostovahs8121
    @gostovahs8121 Год назад +1

    This show is my legit favorite thing on youtube!! lol, it's funny as a kid I hated PBS and wanted to just consume commercial garbage, now as a middle-aged man I'm all about these kinds of things :P

  • @jmhorange
    @jmhorange Год назад

    New video! I love this series :)

  • @AnotherGradus
    @AnotherGradus Год назад

    lol the 6:04 Eric Andre "Ranch it up!!!" moment

  • @hailstorm2026
    @hailstorm2026 Год назад +1

    Very cool. I learned so much!

  • @Sgt-Gravy
    @Sgt-Gravy Год назад +5

    This was fun! I'm just wishing there was more definitive answers to the story bits. I always hated cliffhangers. 🙃

  • @Lawrence2525
    @Lawrence2525 Год назад +1

    In Italian we call corn "mais", very much closer to "maize", but instead of Indian corn we also call it "granoturco" (or "granturco"), Turkish corn :D

  • @user-kk4zw5jo4t
    @user-kk4zw5jo4t Год назад

    Fantastic video, I thoroughly enjoyed that 👍

  • @meteorplum
    @meteorplum Год назад +2

    An American friend who grew up in Buenos Aires before coming back to the US to go to college tells the story of meeting her new roommates during freshman orientation week, and them suggesting that they go out for tacos. My friend was very confused about why they should go eat shoe heels.

    • @ericktellez7632
      @ericktellez7632 Год назад +1

      The shoes specifically used for sports mostly soccer have spikes in the heels those heels are called tacos or taquetes

  • @Warstub
    @Warstub Год назад +2

    For the record, Kiwis never shortened the name of Kiwifruit to Kiwis. We still call them Kiwifruit. Helps differentiate us from the fruit. I guess.
    Unless... 😉

    • @allangibson8494
      @allangibson8494 Год назад

      And roasted kiwi birds are mildly illegal…
      Roasted Moa was however excessively popular with the Maori…

  • @jasonhorn901
    @jasonhorn901 Год назад

    Let's 'dig in.' I see what you did there. LOVE IT!!!

  • @therealelement75
    @therealelement75 2 месяца назад

    0:34 freedom frisbee is honestly something someone would only say just to make people annoyed, like calling GIF "Golf India Foxtrot"