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ArchivesHot-cross buns make Jesus smile, but pumpernickel makes SATAN fart!
Okay, it's gotten too quiet around here. So, for everyone's edification and amusement, here is the etymology of the word "pumpernickel" (extracted from *Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things*):
While the Egyptians are credited with having invented bread baking sometime around 2600 B.C.E., Westphalian Germans created a variation on on sour rye bread and pejoratively named it pumpernickel, from "pumpern" ("to break wind") and "Nickel" ("Old Nick the devil"). The earliest instance of "pumpernickel" in print appeared in 1756 in *A Grand Tour of Germany*, by a travel writer named Nugent. He reported that the Westphalian loaf "is of the very coarsest kind, ill baked, and as black as a coal, for they never sift their flour." The sour rye bread was considered so difficult to digest that it was said to make even Satan break wind.
-- Nanaea
While the Egyptians are credited with having invented bread baking sometime around 2600 B.C.E., Westphalian Germans created a variation on on sour rye bread and pejoratively named it pumpernickel, from "pumpern" ("to break wind") and "Nickel" ("Old Nick the devil"). The earliest instance of "pumpernickel" in print appeared in 1756 in *A Grand Tour of Germany*, by a travel writer named Nugent. He reported that the Westphalian loaf "is of the very coarsest kind, ill baked, and as black as a coal, for they never sift their flour." The sour rye bread was considered so difficult to digest that it was said to make even Satan break wind.
-- Nanaea
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Replies
This makes more sense than rambling explanations I've heard involving the name of Napoleon's horse (no, Pavlos, Trigger was MOHAMMED'S horse). And it's gratifying to see that Motor City Ted was expressing his opinions even back then!
Only problem I see is, if pumpernickel was as primitive, tasteless, and hard to digest as he says, why didn't the Scots invent it first?
Only problem I see is, if pumpernickel was as primitive, tasteless, and hard to digest as he says, why didn't the Scots invent it first?
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"This makes more sense than rambling explanations I've heard involving the name of Napoleon's horse...."
Why, thank you, Daividh! And, as an alternative to kvetching, why don't you put up some interesting etymological-type posting tonight, as well? ;)
-- Nanaea
Why, thank you, Daividh! And, as an alternative to kvetching, why don't you put up some interesting etymological-type posting tonight, as well? ;)
-- Nanaea
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