In the O.Henry short story I am reading, a new bride sends her husband out to get a ripe peach in very early spring.
I remember but cannot find an old fable about woman sending her husband out to find her strawberries in February.
Which reminded me of food cravings in pregnancy. Starting
with "pica":
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Pica \Pi"ca\, n. [L. pica a pie, magpie; in sense 3 prob. named
from some resemblance to the colors of the magpie. Cf. Pie
magpie.]
1. (Zo["o]l.) The genus that includes the magpies.
2. (Med.) A vitiated appetite that craves what is unfit for
food, as chalk, ashes, coal, etc.; chthonophagia.
3. (R. C. Ch.) A service-book. See Pie. [Obs.]
4. (Print.) A size of type next larger than small pica, and
smaller than English.
Note: This line is printed in pica
Note: Pica is twice the size of nonpareil, and is used as a
standard of measurement in casting leads, cutting
rules, etc., and also as a standard by which to
designate several larger kinds of type, as double pica,
two-line pica, four-line pica, and the like.
Small pica (Print.), a size of type next larger than long
primer, and smaller than pica.
But there is a psychiatric term for food cravings during early pregnancy, which I cannot remember. Can you?
Incidentally "chthonophagia" is a dandy word, isn't it?
