Chow, Grub, Scarf, Meat: The Origins of Some Food Words

 

I’m not an etymology buff. Though I love many aspects of language, word histories don’t interest me much.

The plots are too formulaic: Scrappy young word starts out on a trek that winds through several countries before arriving in America, profoundly changed by the journey. The story gets repetitive.
So it was a surprise recently to find myself going down a rabbit hole of word-history research just for the fun of it.

What was different this time? The words I researched were about something that, all by itself, can hold my attention: food.

With the holidays in full swing, you may be as food-focused as I am. So here are a few word histories I found delicious.

 

 

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