Okay, okay, so I'm obsessed with anthropomorphism! There are worse vices! Currently, I'm looking for words used for vegetables and other food that refer to human body parts -- especially words in languages other than English. The only foreign one I know is "coco" -- a Portuguese word that means goblin face, which is what they see when they look at the little dents on a coconut. Does anyone know any others?
Capellini (angel hair pasta in US) is Italian for "little hair" and there is another kind of pasta called orechetti (I think the spelling is all off there) which means "little ears". There are probably other body part pastas that I can't recall now. Also, I think "ladyfingers" is a direct translation from the French, but I can't remember the French for it. I'll keep thinking (and getting hungrier and hungrier)...
and search the threads-- misc. i think-- for Nun's fart-- the name of a french canadian pastry! the thread -- (Sept? Nov? was 50% food-- and i am sure there are some there.
there are also "elephant ears" also know as "palm leaves" a puff pastry cookie, and "bear's claws"-- also known as "Snails" --not human parts...and vienia fingers..
"ears of corn" They don't look like ears. Anybody know whythey got that name? They look like something else.
Nun's fart is also the name of a Sardinian pastry (well, the translation of it). It is very sweet. I don't think it's the same as the French-Canadian one.
How about head of lettuce (cabbage, etc.)?
Not to mention Nipples of Venus, which is probably a translation from Italian, originally.
The body part
ear (
http://www.bartleby.com/61/27/E0002700.html)
and the corn
ear (
http://www.bartleby.com/61/28/E0002800.html)
turn out not to be related. Just two different words that fell together,
cf. cleave (
http://www.bartleby.com/61/89/C0398900.html)
and
cleave (
http://www.bartleby.com/61/90/C0399000.html)
I think ears of corn grow off the stalk sort of like a human ear grows of the head....
Pasta -- of course! Linguini -- little tongues! Vermicelli -- little worms! oops, that's zoomorphism....
The word "avocado" comes from the Nahuatl word "ahuacatl", which means 'testicle'
. The Nahuatl word for juice is "molli" (hence mole). Guacamole, then, is translated literally as "testicle juice" (hey, *i* didn't name the stuff)
beat ya, H
A garlic clove is in Spanish "diente de ajo", meaning "a tooth of garlic"...
And there must be many more...
Oh, and in fact, a complete garlic bulb is called "cabeza de ajos", meaning "a head of garlic"... So, a head of garlic composed of teeth of garlic...
Artichoke hearts. Which, like hearts of palm, I'm thinking are so named from the sense of "heart" meaning "center" and nothing to do with the organ which pumps blood.
Kidney beans.
Kidney beans.
which reminds me of "black eyed peas"
ears of corn
Be careful about "corn" -- if the expression with ears originated in England, where "corn" means grain in general, esp. wheat. Of course ears doesn't seem to make any more sense with a wheatstalk than with a stalk of maize.
A "hand" of bananas that comes from a "palm" tree. And I'm not going to be the first one to mention nuts either.
"Parson's nose" on a chicken.
Borrowing from the recent Rhyming slang thread you have "loaf* of bread"
Rod
* 'cos "loaf"="head" via "loaf of bread" or is that disappearing rapidly up its own jacksie?
In reply to:
"Parson's nose" on a chicken.
Rodward, would you please explain what a parson's nose is, in the context of poultry?
re "parson's nose". Also known as "the Pope's nose" which I didn't know until a minute ago. This is the gristly fatty tail protuberance which is considered a delicacy by some. (From google) Apparently originated as a derogatory term to demean Catholics in England during the late 17th century.
Rod
the parson nose is also known (in anti catholic circles, and among the totally irreverand) as the pope's nose!
It is the tail! (or more rudely the ass bones )
a chickens tail is short and stubby-- and does sort of resemble a nose!
Orecchiette...
from orecchia (ear), orecchie (ears).
Good with turnips..
Ciao
Emanuela
Not to mention Nipples of Venus, which is probably a translation from Italian, originally.
Never known, I don't even imagine what they are..
Emanuela
OK, mebbe it's from German. I've seen them referred to several times. Once in the movie Amadeus. They are a confection. One could imagine the shape and one would likely be right.
For All Saints' Day (1st Nov.), we also eat "Saint's Bones", tubular sweets of white marzipan with some kind of dark filling in them. A bit grim, but pretty tasty...
the parson's (Pope's) nose
My grandmother called this 'the part that goes over the fence last'
Nipple of Venus
They are either cakes, sort of like cupcakes but flatter and rounder, in fact the same shape as a breast; or sometimes a mousse. If a cake, iced, if a mousse colored, pink to look like flesh, with a cherry half or maybe raspberry in the center. They can be quite realistic.
My grandmother called this 'the part that goes over the fence last'
Around here the term is "botzel."
(Not sure if I spelled that right, but then PA Dutch doesn't really have formalized spelling anyway...)
Edit: Hurray! I'm finally a Member!!
My grandmother called this 'the part that goes over the fence last'
The vertebral column is completed in the tail region by a flat plate known as the pygostyle, which forms a support for the rectrices, or steering tailfeathers.
Also in this area in some birds there are the glands that produce oil to condition the feathers.
Coco in Spanish can be used as coconut, head and bogeyman. When I was a kid I used to wrap my sheets around me when in bed for fear of “el coco”.
As Marianna said we have teeth and garlic heads. We also have hearts of fruits, usually apples.
We eat big ears “orejones” that are dry peaches and make a pumpkin sweet named "cabello de angel" angel’s hair.
The vertebral column is completed in the tail region by a flat plate known as the pygostyle, which forms a support for the rectrices, or steering tailfeathers.
Also in this area in some birds there are the glands that produce oil to condition the feathers.
Hence, the term "Parson's nose".
http://www.ddc.com/cheferic/gloss.htmThe above has lots of neat terms defined.
No luck with "Nipples of Venus" and I would like the recipe. (by PM please) For a dessert with that name I would throw a party for a few
select friends!
It must be a dessert, musn't it?
These are all such great examples! I love that many are naughty: Pope's nose, testicles, nun's fart, and nipples of Venus. I guess food just brings that out in people. And now that Marianna mentions it, I remember having "bones of the dead" cookies from a local, and very traditional Italian pastry shop in NY's East Village. They were really crunchy! I'm going to hunt up a comprehensive list of Italian pasta -- I have a feeling that it's a motherlode....
I remember having "bones of the dead" cookies
I forgot our "huesos de santo" bones of saint. Those easter sweets are thin cylinders of bone colored marzipan stuffed with a red cream of sweet potatoes that reminds the bone marrow.
Guacamole, then, is translated literally as "testicle juice"Tell me, B96, did you blush the last time a man gave you an orchid? A man would have to be nuts to do it!
Tell me, B96, did you blush the last time a man gave you an orchid?
a single orchid?? i'd be disappointed, actually. i prefer to enjoy orchids on their stalks, full of life.
[/dilogy]
funny you should mention it, though... dendrobiums are high on my list of favorite flowers. i'd bet a lei that wow would agree.
Dear bridget96: but if you lose, who gets leid?
for who is going to lei who...
of troy reveals another of her skills: yodeling!
May 1st indeed is Lei Day in Hawai'i !! What a beautiful display of imaginative lei on display at Kapiolani Park , should you happen to be there on that day.
One year I had a jade plant lei. Gorjus against a pale bue mu'umu'u ... like the sea surrounding us. (Long, Deep, Sigh of Longing -e)
You may order Dendrobium lei delivered by air from Mauna Loa catalogue,
As for me, I have two lovely lei of silk so real looking people want to touch and always ask "Is that real?"! One orchid, one ginger. Expensive available in Hawai'i only, leastaways I haven't seen them anywhere else.
By the way no plural in Hawaiian (tenuous word-related try)
one lei is a lei, ten lei are still lei.
Thanks, everybody, for your suggestions! They're so colorful! It's a big help...
of troy reveals another of her skills: yodeling!
The origin of yodeling is interesting. One evening while trudging his weary way between Swiss villages, a travelling ski wax salesman got caught in a blizzard. He sought shelter at a farmhouse, and the Farmer and wife allowed him to stay, but as the only sleeping accomodation was alongside the two delightful daughters, the farmer made him promise not to touch them. The next morning the farmer checks on his daughters, and finds them lying in disarray with smiles on their faces. He rushes outside and sees the salesman just about to disappear over the hill, and yells after him "You broke your promise! You slept with my daughters!" And the salesman's voice sings back across the valley "And your old lady too!"
Rod
The origin of yodeling is interesting. One evening while trudging his weary way between Swiss villages, a travelling ski wax
salesman got caught in a blizzard.That accounts only for Swiss yodeling. Here in the Yew Ess Aye, yodeling got its start from a lack of wax salesmen. Just watch on old Western movie, the ones with the singing cowboys, and you'll notice that they yodeled because they hadn't waxed the splintery seat planks on the wagons.
Geoff suggests: Here in the Yew Ess Aye...they yodeled because they hadn't waxed the splintery seat planks on the wagons.
All seriousness aside, I have the WDI* that US'ns cowboy yodeling is imitative of wolves' howls. By suggesting to the cattle that there are predators in the vicinity, they trigger the cows' clumping-for-protection instinct.
*WDI, Whack-a-Doodle Idea
Swiss villages, a travelling ski waxsalesman got caught in a blizzard.
And descending once more into the gutter I'm afraid, I have an amusing pamphlet in French from Solomon who make ski wax amongst other ski paraphernalia (ever used paraphernalium?). The French for ski-wax is "fart", waxing "fartage". so you get such delightful phrases as "L'art de fartage", "Les farts glissements** pour les zone de glissement", "les farts poussees** pour les zone .... ".
** sliding and pushing respectively.
I still have a photo of "Le Tunnel de Fartage" on the ski slope which was a covered perspex walkway with a wax laden floor, with my.. er parson's nose? directed into the tunnel. Of such schoolboy humour is family bonding made.
Rod
US'ns cowboy yodeling is imitative of wolves' howls
I think this is a worthy WDI, but given the sounds involved, I'd guess the yodels are more imitative of coyotes (known in the Southwest of our fair land as songdogs, as they're more musical than wolves).
Hyla'd guess the yodels are more imitative of coyotes
I'll accept that as a friendly amendment.
"L'art de fartage"
Smile when you say that, stranger.
In French Québec people will ofter call the head a coco when speaking to a small child.
Again, when speaking to a child, coco is also an other name for an egg.
L'art de fartage"
Smile when you say that, stranger.
Corcoran, Malcolm, Fartage de ski de fond, Guy Saint-Jean éditeur, 1996. -- Le 26 mars, de 14 h à 20 h; le 27 mars, de 12 h à 18 h. Stand 136.
ski de fond = cross country skiing, as opposed to Alpine or downhill.
Rod