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Jenka Guevara of Mexico City wrote:
"In Mexico, pan marmol, pastel marmol, or panque marmol, or, pan marmoleado, pastel marmoleado, or panque marmoleado, refer to two toned bread or cake."

These comments brought to my mind something that I have puzzled about for a considerable time; the origin of the name of "marmalade" - you know, the very English tangy and bitter-sweet jam (US: jelly) we put on bread or toast, especially at breakfast time. You could describe the contents of a jar of marmalade as 'marbled'.

For anyone who doesn't know, marmalade is made from the flesh and sliced or chopped peel of (preferably) sharp and bitter oranges from Sevilla in southern Spain, boiled with sugar and water to a setting point, together with the fruit's natural pectin from the pips, to give a firm set, then bottled. Good quality marmalade is a real speciality, and tastes delicious on hot toast with real butter. Mmmm!

Sam

Last edited by SamDottore; 09/23/12 01:04 PM.

"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" - 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter'.
Dante (Durante degli) Alighieri, "La Divina Commedia", "Inferno", c 1308-1321
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I still have my Ovid text book. Having struggled thru it
in 9th grade, I appreciate your signature.


----please, draw me a sheep----
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According to Collins english Dictionary's etymology, this is the origin, Sam.
American Heritage Dictionary gives a very similar result.

n
(Cookery) a preserve made by boiling the pulp and rind of citrus fruits, esp oranges, with sugar
adj
(Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Colours) (of cats) streaked orange or yellow and brown
[via French from Portuguese marmelada, from marmelo quince, from Latin, from Greek melimēlon, from meli honey + mēlon apple]


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Such a sweet reply.


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melimēlon

And just to be clear about the lack of a connection here, marble is from Latin marmor < Greek μαρμαρος (marmaros) 'marble'.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Which is, of course, often two-toned - which takes us back to Sam's original post.


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Which, presumably, is why ginger cats are called "marmalade" - because they are two tones of ginger! I had never thought that one through before - amazing what you can take fopr granted.


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As to my chosen signature...
My "classical" education was more Latin than Greek, so I have actually never ever read, let alone studied, Ovid. I followed scientific disciplines in my professional life, only recently taking an interest in classical themes.
What struck me about "Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit" was its timeless and literally universal applicability, a sentiment coined long before voluntary "recycling" or "make do and mend" initiatives were launched in the last century, and are becoming ever more important. Of course, a mistake made by every human generation since individual thought became possible, has been in believing that "we" have been the first to have what seems to be an original thought.
Sam


"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" - 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter'.
Dante (Durante degli) Alighieri, "La Divina Commedia", "Inferno", c 1308-1321
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,075
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"Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit" strikes me as similar to the French, "Plus ça change; et tout sont la même chose."

and, of course >>a sentiment coined long before voluntary "recycling" or "make do and mend" initiatives were launched in the last century<< was only coined after we had strated to become, to some extent, a 'throw-away society'. In the C19 and the preceding centuries, everything was kept and reused until it, literally, fell to bits and was irreparable. If you were rich enough to cast things off before they were totally useless, then you passed them on down the line, either as gifts to your servants or sold to the second-hand shope which abounded.
(like Charity shops in UK today!)
It is only mass production techniques (and global ease of transport!) that has made it more expensive tor ecycle than to make new.


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Another variant, a more recent coining with similar sentiments, and made in a working environment (I know, I was there) where technical and scientific people made their living, but were about to be made redundant, was "The Only Constant in Life is Change".

This will have particular resonance for anyone trained in mathematical or scientific disciplines, where the very concept of a constant relies on it being unchanging, immutable.

Sam


"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" - 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter'.
Dante (Durante degli) Alighieri, "La Divina Commedia", "Inferno", c 1308-1321
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