30 January 2010

your etymology lesson: marshmallow


Might as well continue the food theme that I seem to have developed here. (p. 459-460)

marshmallow n. Before 1400 marshmalue kind of mallow plant which grows near salt marshes; developed from Old English (about 1000) mersc-mealwe (mersc MARSH + mealwe MALLOW). Marshmallow the confection (1884) was originally made from the root of the marsh mallow plant.

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