Friday, October 16, 2009

Best Etymology Ever

Today I looked up "pumpernickel" because it appeared in a list of shades of brown in Roget's Thesaurus, and I need a lot of color words for the book I'm writing. I happened to glance at the etymology and had to laugh: I had figured the word was German, but I never would have guessed that it comes from roots roughly translating as "goblin farts"! Apparently the bread had quite a reputation for being indigestible...