Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Dinner
No doubt many guests have arrived for a Sunday dinner much earlier or later than the host intended thanks to the ambiguous nature of the word dinner, a guest might understand dinner to be the meal eaten at noon (followed hours later by supper); a host might understand dinner to be the meal eaten at…
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Dim sum
After first appearing in English in 1948, the Chinese dim sum, the name of bitesized dumplings filled with seafood and meat, went through numerous spellings—including deem sum, tim-sam, dim sim, and tim sun—before returndessert ing to its original form, dim sum, in the early 1980s. Translated literally, the name means speck heart, but more idiomatically…
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Demijohn
Although demijohn is a good name for a washroom containing no bathtub or sink, it actually refers to a wine bottle or vinegar jug whose body is fitted with a wicker-work casing. Demijohn, in fact, has nothing to do with the name John, but instead is an English corruption of the French dame-jeanne, a name…
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Delicious
In the sixteenth century, a diarist writing about an especially enjoyable meal might have jotted down that it was delishous, a spelling that (to my mind) looks more delicious than delicious. The now-standard spelling, however, is etymologically more correct, since delicious derives from the Latin delicere, meaning to entice. The word delight derives from the…
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Deipnosophist
A person who excels at dinner-table conversation is a deipnosophist. The word, which appeared in English in the mid seventeenth century, was taken from the title of a third-century Greek work by Athenaeus that describes the erudite discussions that take place among a group of men as they partake of a banquet. Athenaeus created the…
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Dark meat
The terms dark meat and white meat came about during the 1870s in the United States as euphemisms for respectively the breast and legs of a cooked chicken. Rather than say such naughty words-which might cause the gentleman at the table to start thinking about the breasts and legs of the gentlewomen, which might cause…
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Dariole
Like custard, the word dariole was, back in the early fifteenth century, the name o fa savoury pastry filled with meat; also like custard, the word dariole eventually shifted its sense and came to mean a sweet dessert made from milk, eggs, and sugar. Unlike custard, however, dariole shifted its sense once more as it…
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Cutlet
You might suspect that cut is to cutlet as pig is to piglet; however, cutlet, the name of a small piece of mutton or veal cut from the ribs, is not a diminutive of the word cut. Instead, it is a diminutive of the French word cote, meaning side, or rather it is a double…
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Currant
Currants are small, round berries that are dried and used in jellies and pastries. Their name is not related to the word current as in current affairs—a word that derives from the Latin currere, meaning to run—but rather derives from Corinth, the name of a city in Greece. In ancient times, Corinth exported dried grapes…
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Curd
The Old English word creodan, meaning to press together, is the source of the word crowd (a throng of people pressing together) and also of curd (lumps of coagulated milk that may be made into cheese). When the word first appeared in English in the middle of the fourteenth century it was spelt and pronounced…
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