The ingredients used to build a Reuben sandwich seem simple enough, but the etymology behind what we call them reveals a complex and colorful cultural recipe, with roots in Yiddish, German, Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Dutch, according to food historian Judith Tschann. Specializing in Old and Middle English in graduate school, Tschann has accumulated thousands of notecards with various etymologies of words, many pertaining to food.
For instance, the word cantaloupe is a toponym, or a word named for a place, in this case cantalupo — a papal county seat outside of Rome. (Some canta-lore from Tschann: Pope Paul II apparently died as a result of eating two of his beloved melons in one sitting.) Honeydew, on the other hand, goes back to Old English and Germanic roots, which referred to aphid secretions.
Food etymology works both ways, with the presence of culinary catchphrases all over the tech world (think: cookies, server, byte). When it comes to programming jargon, the story behind java script is that developers drank an abundance of coffee. These quirky tales are regaled in Tschann’s book, Romaine Wasn't Built In A Day: The Delightful History of Food Language.
Her specialization in Old and Middle English led Judith Tschann down a path of etymology. Photo by Peter Tschann.
Romaine Wasn’t Built In A Day: The Delightful History of Food Language celebrates the intersection of linguistics and culinary affiinities. Photo courtesy of Voracious.