meanwhile, back at the ranch

And so, in single-digit temperatures, lambing season begins.

your etymology lesson: bacon

What better way to finish the week than with bacon? (No better way.)

And what do we learn from the etymology book about bacon? That bacon has pretty much just always been called bacon. (p. 52)

bacon n. About 1330 bacoun, borrowed from Old French bacon, bacun (perhaps through Medieval Latin baconem), from a Germanic source (compare Old High German bahho side of bacon, Middle High German bache ham, bacon, modern German -backe, as in Hinterbacke buttock, and Middle Dutch baken side of bacon, from Proto-Germanic *bakon-).

Auf Wiedersehen.

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 Marshmallow the confection (1884) was originally made from the root of the marsh mallow plant.

your etymology lesson: avocado

I will never look at an avocado the same way ever again. And now, neither will you. (p. 49)

avocado n. 1763, avocato, avocado, earlier avogato (1697); borrowed from Spanish avocado, alteration of an earlier form similar to aguacate, from Nahuatl ahuacatl testicle.

your etymology lesson: ventriloquism

(p. 855)

ventriloquism n. 1797, formed as a descriptive noun to ventriloquist, with substitution of the suffix -ism. The word has replaced older ventriloquy. —ventriloquist n. 1656, formed from English ventriloquy + -ist. —ventriloquy n. 1584, formed from Late Latin ventriloquus ventriloquist + English -y. Late Latin ventriloquus (Latin venter, genitive ventris, belly + loqui speak) was patterned on Greek engastrímythos, literally, speaking in the belly.

Wait, whaaaat?

your etymology lesson: raspberry

Today's word is dedicated to my grandpa, who spends evenings in his easy chair next to his minibar, doling out mixed nuts and homemade raspberry wine to guests. (p. 636)

raspberry n. 1623, formed in English from earlier raspis berry (before 1548); also raspis raspberry (about 1532); possibly related to, if not developed from raspise a sweet, rose-colored wine (before 1475), earlier rospeys (1440), from Anglo-Latin vinum raspeys (compare Old French raspe and Medieval Latin raspecia, raspeium raspberry), of uncertain origin.

your etymology lesson: gobbledygook

(p. 323)

gobbledygook n. 1944, American English; formed in imitation of the gobbling of the turkey cock.