Naming Things: Old Word Order
By Barbara Rosen International Herald Tribune
Friday, January 15, 1993
Ask for a Swiss steak in Zurich or a Russian salad in Moscow, and you're bound to get puzzled looks. But while they may not exist in the countries whose names they bear, there is a reason they're called what they are. A surprising number of foreign labels can be traced to explanations - some laudatory, some pejorative, some just plain wrong.
Often, said John Simpson, the co-editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, "the word for the country is just used to mean rather odd or peculiar." "French cricket," for example, applies to a form of the game that's just not the traditional one. "It's not intended as a great racial slur," Simpson said. "It's just they do things in a slightly different way than we do."
Across the Atlantic, it's typically "Chinese." " 'Chinese' is a word that's used for a lot of things that just mean foreign," said David Weeks, a senior editor at The American Heritage Dictionary. "In olden days, 'Chinese' was practically a synonym for 'funny' or 'odd.' It doesn't actually mean that the thing comes from China."
It doesn't take much for the foreign-as-different label to slip into the slur. "French letter," which appeared as an English term for
condoms in the mid-19th century, was employed to describe "slightly under-the-counter sort of things," Simpson said. "At the time, they were not the sort of thing to discuss in polite company," and therefore couldn't be claimed as one's own.
"Something like 'Chinese fire drill,' that's clearly derogatory," added Reinhold Aman, editor of Maledicta ("the international journal of verbal aggression"). "But 'Chinese checkers' is not."
English anti-Dutch compounds stuck after 17th-century conflicts, said Richard Lederer, a language writer based in New Hampshire, citing "Dutch courage" (courage because of intoxicants) and "Dutch treat" (no treat at all).
Of course, foreign labels can also add cachet. The American "French dry cleaning" technique, which involved hand-dipping clothing in a solvent, did originate in France in the early 1800s, said Dawn Adams, an instructor at the International Fabricare Institute in Maryland. But because of U. S. safety regulations, "you can't do it now," she added. Cleaners who claim to are "probably doing more of a spot-cleaning thing."
Among other real origins, a 1937 article quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary describes "Russian roulette" being practiced among Russian troops in Romania. "Indian summer," says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, originated in the northeastern U. S. "and probably arose from the Indians' practice of gathering winter stores at this time." Such late warm seasons are called "All-hallown" or "old wives" summers in Europe.
"French leave," or unauthorized departure, actually dates from an 18th-century custom, popular in France, of leaving without saying good-bye to one's hostess.
THE roots of "French toast" are in the French dish pain perdu, according to The Dictionary of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani, which also lists its names in other countries and notes that at various times in America it has been called "Spanish," "German," and "nun's" toast.
"Danish pastry," meanwhile, seems to have been a case of good marketing. According to "America's Table" by Joseph D. Vehling, the term was much in use in 1917-18 in connection with a single baker who was indeed from Copenhagen and who traveled to various American cities demonstrating his pastry-making techniques: "Nothing new or spectacular nor particularly 'Danish.' His 'Danish pastry' had been practiced for ages in Continental Europe, which he admitted."
Yet while deep-fried potatoes may be ubiquitous in France, the name "french fries" comes not from an assumption of origin but from the "frenching" method of cutting potatoes into narrow strips, according to The Dictionary of American Food and Drink.
THEN there's "in-the-style-of." A "Russian salad" of vegetables with mayonnaise originally contained beet root, which may have led to its association with things Russian, said the OED's Simpson. "Russian dressing," according to various gastronomic tomes, is an American invention, possibly so-named because it originally included caviar, or was thought to resemble Russian salad.
Lastly, there's the "was it just a slip of the tongue" category. Experts believe Great Danes came from Germany, according to "Misnomers," by Mark and Diane Kender Dittrick. And guinea pigs come from Guyana'
Foreign labeling, in all its forms, is not restricted to English. "Homard a l'américaine," or "lobster American-style," cooked in oil and tomatoes, was created in France by a French chef (though he had spent time working in America), according to the 1988 Larousse Gastronomique. Look up "French letter" in the Collins Robert English-French dictionary and you'll find "capote anglaise." Look up "French leave" and you'll find it's "Ã l'anglaise."
And while "unintelligible" may be "all Greek" to an English speaker, it's "Chinese" to a Greek, says Elias Petropoulos, a Greek writer who lives in Paris. He adds: "All mankind calls syphilis the 'French disease' - except the French, who say it's the 'illness of Naples.' "
Barbara Rosen is a free-lance journalist living in Paris.
Source:
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?f ... 5/word.php
