Interesting Origins of Food-Related Words

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. For starters, from where do we get the word "coconut?" The Samoan word for head The name of a Portuguese bogey-man A breed of Thai cattle The Tagalog word for rock

2. What is a mallow, as in the word "marshmallow?" A Middle Eastern fruit, similar to an apricot A North American root, gray-green in color A coniferous tree native to Scandinavia A plant with showy pink flowers, native to the British Isles

3. Those delicious pecan pralines are named after a seventeenth century French aristocrat. What was his name? Prince Hugues de la Prasline Duc de Montpraline Count Plessis-Praslin Louis Pralinee, Marquis de Chevantreaux

4. I have always found "cantaloupe" to be the most unusual name for a melon, not to mention a pain to spell! What is the cantaloupe named after? A Chippewa word meaning "fruit" A town in Armenia, famed for its melons A previous pope's country estate, outside of Rome The ship that first brought the fruit to Lisbon, Portugal

5. The word "butter" can trace its heritage back to which language? Irish Gaelic Albanian Greek Persian

6. "Marmalade" came into English from which Romance language? Portuguese Rumanian French Italian

7. There is another dairy product whose name comes to us from Roman soldiers, via the invasion of Britain. Which one am I thinking of? Cream Cheese Whey Milk

8. A Strawberry Daiquiri can be a delicious way to end the day. But from where does this libation get its label? An island in the West Antilles A Jamaican mountain A Cuban beach and nearby iron mine A Spanish word for any fruit-based beverage

9. The English word "soy" is a corruption of which Chinese word? Soy-chi Sho-yu Shoi-u Sai-shu

10. The word "lettuce" comes from "Lutece," the French translation of the Latin "Lutetia," the ancient name for Paris. True or False? True False

11. The foundation of the word "seasoning," meaning an added ingredient to flavor food, is the Old French term for "sowing time." True or False? True False

12. The food word "flour" and its botanical homonym "flower" are one and the same, entering English via French and Latin. True or False? True False

13. The word "gumbo" is rare in English, in that it comes from an African language, a dialect of Bantu. It is a Bantu word for one of the ingredients in today's gumbo stew - Which one? Onion Celery Okra Garlic

14. The English word for "avocado" comes from the Spanish word for lawyer, which is what the Aztec word for the fruit, "ahuacatl," sounded like to the early Spanish. What does "ahuacatl" really mean in Nahuatl, the Aztec langauge? Moon Turtle Testicle Rock

15. The early Europeans only had one important fruit: the apple. Consequently, the term "apple" became applied to the seed pod of any tree. Which of these fruit names is NOT apple-related? Pomegranate Apricot Pineapple Peach