East African Flatbread: Injera

"Injera" is a total part of the food culture in many areas of East Africa, and it is included in every meal. "Injera" is a crepe-like fermented bread used as a "base" for serving food, and also used to scoop up or to pinch off food for eating. It is sort of "pockmarked" on one side from the bubbles that form when the batter is cooking, and the texture is spongy. In East Africa the making of injera is usually more of a 2 or 3 day process, where many, but not all, use ground "teff," a flour made from the small seeds of a grass like plant common in eastern Africa. Teff flour is gluten free and it comes in light to dark colors, so you may see injera that looks like dark rye or buckwheat, or you may see injera that is lighter in color, even pretty much white. In some areas other flour types are used instead of teff, including sorghum flour, which is also gluten free.* The East Africans generally let the initial mix sit for 1 to 3 days to ferment and to acquire a "sour" taste for the completed injera, like sourdough is used as a "starter" for sourdough bread products. Since injera is commonly made with teff flour in Ethiopia, many people keep a "starter" to add to their next batch of injera batter. From what I understand, the starter batter, or sponge, does not typically contain yeast, but since just about all families make injera, I'm sure there are any number of variations to some ingredients and methods. This recipe here is a faster method, and it uses all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, both easily obtained at just about any grocery store, large or small. Teff flour and sorghum flour are available in many countries nowadays, if you want to be more authentic on the Ethiopian side. While this recipe doesn't use teff flour, it is still better than the recipe I used from a cookbook I had when I first made injera in about 1995, which was so bland, I never had the desire to make it again. I can't recall the exact year, but approximately 25 years ago, I visited an Ethiopian restaurant here in Cleveland, but whether they used teff flour, I have no idea. The food was delicious.   

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 package active yeast (1/4 ounce/7g)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups warm (NOT HOT!) water

Add the dry ingredients to a bowl, then gradually mix in the warm water. Use a stick (immersion) blender to make sure the batter is smooth. Or you can put the ingredients into a blender and add 1 1/2 cups of water to start, then gradually add more water until the batter is smooth and thinned. The batter should not be totally thick, nor thin like water, but rather on the order of heavy cream. Let the batter sit (covered) for about 45 minutes. Stir or blend it again to mix it well. Use a non stick skillet. I used a 9 inch skillet, but you can use larger or somewhat smaller. You don't really need any oil or butter, but I did see 2 recipes, out of about 30, use a little oil. Heat the skillet before adding the batter. I used medium high heat, but you can always adjust the setting once you see how the injera cooks. Use a ladle and pour the batter into the center of the pan and immediately tilt and shake the pan to spread the batter out evenly over the bottom of the skillet. Naturally the size of the pan and of your ladle is important here. You DON'T want the injera to be as thick as typical American pancakes, but they shouldn't be the more typical thinness of crepes, either. Once you add the batter and get it evenly distributed, you will see little bubbles form on the top of the batter. Cover the skillet with a lid or with foil, and let the injera cook until the top is set and there is no glistening from wet batter (this will not take very long). The skillet I use does not have a lid with it, but I have the lid a round casserole dish that fits almost perfectly over the skillet; so, improvise if you must. You do not flip injera, so the bottom side will be somewhat browned. In East Africa, injera is used for serving vegetables, stews or meats right on top of the spread out injera. Then, more injera is used to pick up the food when eating. The sauces, meat drippings or liquid part of stews will soak right into the serving injera, so you eat the serving "tray," if you get my drift.  

* Sorghum flour is from a grass plant. Americans may more readily think of "sorghum syrup," often simply referred to as "sorghum," a sweet syrup which is made from the juice extracted from the stalks of sorghum plants. The syrup was strongly associated with parts of the American South for about a century,  from pre Civil War times until the post World War Two era, when its production declined dramatically. It was, and still is, but to a lesser degree than in the past, commonly poured over fried cornmeal mush and grits, or used on biscuits.

WORD HISTORY: 
Hoof-This word has an uncertain ancient history, although it traces back to Indo European "koph," which meant, "hoof," but whether this was an original Indo European form is the question. There are some who feel the original Indo European form's meaning was not "hoof," but rather an action meaning like "beat," that then developed into a noun meaning "hoof," from the notion of the hooves/hoofs beating on the ground. Others feel Indo European may have borrowed the word from Middle Eastern or northeast African languages, where there were similar terms having to do with "animal feet, hooves." Anyway, the Indo European form gave Old Germanic "hofaz," meaning "hoof," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "hof" (long "o"). This later became "hufe" and "hoof." When I was a kid, there were Americans who pronounced "hoof" with a long "u" sound, which I "believe" is still the main pronunciation in England and other parts of Britain, and I wouldn't be surprised if some Americans still say it that way, but I haven't heard that pronunciation for quite some time. With other Americans, the pronunciation had softened to something of a short "u," which is now the most used form of pronunciation in the U.S. There were/are similar dual pronunciations for "roof," as I say it as if "rufe," with a long "u," but others said/say the much shorter sounding, "roof"), "woof" and "poof," for example. Also, when I was in school, the plural of "hoof" was "hooves," and it was pronounced with the long "u" sound. In more recent times I generally hear "hoofs," with the short sound, which is also used as a verb for a sort of slang term for "walk," as in, "My car broke down a half mile from home and I had to "hoof" it the rest of the way." Anyway, the other Germanic languages have: German "Huf" (long "u"), Low German Saxon "Hoof," Dutch "hoef," West Frisian "hoof" (seems to be, but I also found "hoef"), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish "hov" and Icelandic "hófur."  

East African Spice Mix: Berbere

This is a common spice blend used in many countries in East Africa, especially in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is so commonly used, many families make their own, so there are numerous variations to recipes for berbere (pronounced as if, "bur-bur-ah"), including for the "heat level." In East Africa, many of the spices are first toasted in whole form, and then they are ground, but to make this blend a little more simple, you can use already ground spices, but you can toast them in a dry skillet briefly, if you'd like, but take care not to burn the spices, which can happen quite quickly... ah, that's what I've been told. (Let me uncross my fingers before I move on.)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons cayenne pepper or other hot red ground chilies
1 teaspoon ground fenugreek
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon mild smoked paprika (Spanish paprika is smoked)
1 teaspoon onion powder   

This is the hard part... haha  Put all ingredients into a jar or other small storage container, put the lid on the jar and shake the jar until the spices are well mixed. You should shake the container before each use.

WORD HISTORY:
Zen-This word, distantly related to "semantic," goes back to Indo European "dhyae," which had the notion, "to look, to see." This gave transliterated Sanskrit^ "dhyana," meaning, "meditation" ("mentally looking in a focused way at the various aspects of a subject, often regarding a god, or religion, eventually as part of Buddhism"). This was borrowed by Chinese^^ as transliterated "dzien" (by pronunciation), and this was borrowed by Japanese^^^ as transliterated "zen," with the deep mediation part of Buddhism meaning. Seemingly first borrowed by English circa 1730.

^ "Sanskrit" is an ancient language from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European; thus, it is related to English, although much further down the family tree. It is still in use to some degree, especially in India.

^^ "Chinese" in its several forms belongs to the "Sino-Tibetan" language family. It's best known relative is Burmese.

^^^ For such a large language, the overall history and ties of "Japanese" to other languages is a bit sketchy, but it is part of the "Japonic" language family. Over time, some have attempted, unsuccessfully, to connect Japonic, and thus Japanese, to Korean. The similarities shared between Japanese and Korean have been generally assumed to be from borrowings due to contacts between the languages, not directly from a shared common ancestor.          

The Best of Enemies, Good Film From the Early 1960s

It is hard to write about war movies that are lighthearted, since in war, REAL people get killed and wounded, and all participants return with scars to their bodies or to their minds, or both. However, this somewhat rare war "dramedy," released in 1962, might bring a few smiles to your face, and the ending just might find you having to hold back a tear. This is a delightful Italian production, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, the grandfather of television cook Giada De Laurentiis, but the film was directed by English director Guy Hamilton. It is about a little known part of World War Two; the war in East Africa; more specifically in this case, the war in Abyssinia (also known as Ethiopia). The British and the Italians both had colonies in eastern Africa, and both countries used the local populations to help them retain control of their respective colonies; that is, both used colonial military units. This movie is not easy to find, but it has been on television, including, "if I'm not mistaken," on TCM (Turner Classic Movies). You can also check sources that show movies online. It is available more easily on DVD, but in (dubbed) Italian with English subtitles, although you might find a few DVD copies in the original English. It will be well worth your effort. 

The movie was filmed in Israel to simulate the very rough terrain of parts of Abyssinia in 1941. In that year, the British forces were on the advance against Italian forces in Abyssinia, and the movie depicts an Italian infantry company, "supported" by some Abyssinian warriors, including a few with only spears, that captures a British officer, Major Richardson, played by David Niven, along with his pilot, when their plane crash lands. The Italians want to get back to their main force, but their radio goes bad, so they are out of touch with their headquarters. The experienced and professional Italian commander is killed when a British reconnaissance vehicle comes into the Italian camp, so the writers make sure we still see the reality of war. This leaves Captain Vittorio Blasi in charge, played by Alberto Sordi. Blasi is not the most competent officer, to say the least, and when he is interrogating the captured British officers, he accidentally tells the British where he and his men are headed, which is more information than he can get from his prisoners, who give only name, rank and serial number. Still, the mistake seems harmless, since the information is of little use to the British prisoners at the moment. Major Richardson sort of bullies Captain Blasi at first by pulling rank on the Italian and frequently demanding a salute from him. He then brings up the Geneva Convention about treatment of prisoners, leaving the uninformed captain to wonder if he is violating a law of warfare. The two officers engage in some shouting matches at various times. Blasi may not be a professional officer, but he is a good man who is tired of the war. He only wants to get himself and his men to safety, but, in perhaps a mocking by the scriptwriters of Mussolini, he tries to portray himself as tough, but there is little substance to his posturing.* Blasi decides to make a deal with the condescending British major, who has a contemptuous opinion of the Italian captain. Blasi decides to let the two Brits escape, with the understanding that Richardson will then tell his superiors that the little Italian force is weak and not worth bothering with; thus allowing the Italians to get to safety unscathed.

All goes well, the British men escape (but they take the Italian mules, which wasn't part of the deal) and their commanding officer is pretty well sold that the Italian company is no threat to his own forces, but Richardson then casually mentions where the Italians are heading (Blasi's earlier mistake comes into play by Richardson now making the mistake of saying too much). Another British officer then informs the commander that the Italians are regrouping in the aforementioned place, so the commander decides to send a reluctant Richardson with some armor (British spelling: "armour") and motorized units to destroy the Italian company. Richardson and his men find the Italians in a fort already abandoned by the main Italian force. When the British pull up near the fort, Richardson puts up a white flag to signal he wants to talk. The inexperienced Captain Blasi thinks the British want to surrender and frets over how he will care for his prisoners. Another Italian soldier has to tell the captain it is only a signal the British want to talk and that Blasi must now also show a white flag to show agreement. When Blasi finds Richardson leading the British force against him, he sees Richardson as having broken their agreement and he is furious. Blasi is given one hour to surrender, but in that time, and unknown to the British, Blasi and his Italian men sneak away from the rear of the fort, as Major Richardson failed to order the fort to be surrounded, as he can't imagine Blasi being competent enough to pull a fast one. Who's incompetent now? When more than an hour passes, the other British officers want to open fire, but Richardson doesn't want to kill the Italians and suddenly out of the fort comes some men. Blasi had told some of his colonial soldiers to march out to surrender to the British in one hour, but he failed to give them a watch so they would know when the hour was up, that's why they are late! It's too funny!

The Italians are now on the run. Both the Italians and the British make their respective camps in something of an oasis, near a lake. When the spear-armed Abyssinian warriors kill the Italian mascot, an antelope, Blasi orders the warriors to leave, but this affront brings the warriors to start a fire in the brush. The dry grass and trees are quickly whipped into a major fire which destroys the British vehicles and sends both the Italians and the British men fleeing for their very lives to an island in the middle of the lake. So we now have two armed enemies together, but striving to just stay alive from a common enemy... FIRE! When the fire dies down, the Italians lay down their arms and surrender. With everyone now on foot, the column meets a group of native tribesmen who want the British to turn over the Italians and the Italian guns to them, ending with, "Death to the Italians." Richardson refuses the request and the British and their prisoners move on. The British enter an abandoned native village and make camp, as one of their men is very sick with pneumonia. The Italian doctor treats him, but the writers pull us back from lightheartedness to reality, as the soldier dies. The two sides get involved in a soccer match (football to most of the world), which then evolves into a fight. Damn! Just like a real soccer or hockey match. The situation changes dramatically when the earlier native tribesmen reappear in large numbers. The British withdraw a short distance to a better defensive position.

Captain Blasi asks Major Richardson to give the Italians their weapons, so they can help defend themselves, but Richardson won't do it. While the group waits for what they assume will be an attack by the tribesmen, Blasi and Richardson get into personal details about their lives, and we find out that Captain Blasi has a wife and two children, and he shows Richardson their photo. He tells the major, "My wife said, 'I don't care if you are a coward, come home to me.' " Richardson at first denies having a family picture, but Blasi catches him when he takes the photo from his wallet. The two discuss their dislike of the war, and the major tells him they still have a job to do, but that Blasi doesn't really make the effort. Blasi then tells Richardson that he would willingly fight for his home, but that serving so far from Italy in Africa, he doesn't feel that he is doing that. With this, Richardson decides to give the Italians their weapons, only to learn that his second in command left the Italian ammunition behind. We're back to another competency evaluation.

The group tries to escape under cover of darkness, only to be captured to the last man. The tribesmen not only take their weapons, but their boots too. So now we have a group of barefoot British and Italian soldiers with no weapons. The tribal chief tells them to get out of his country and go fight in their own countries. The men move out in the direction ordered by Richardson, and finally they reach a paved road, but they don't know where they are, although they assume they are behind British lines. Richardson orders the prisoners to the rear, but when Captain Blasi steps off the road to relieve himself, he sees the road marker indicating that they are only 10 Km (about 6 miles) from Addis Ababa, the capital of Abyssinia and thus the center of Italian military command. Blasi bursts out laughing, yelling out, "We are behind the Italian lines." Richardson is furious and frustrated, and he tells Blasi that he should have fired on the Italians when they were hiding in that fort. So now the tables have turned again, or have they? Blasi now also turns serious in response to Richardson. He tells the major, "It's not the best and bravest who win the wars, but the ones who make the least mistakes." The Italians march off toward Addis Ababa and the British march off in the opposite direction. When trucks approach, the British hide off of the road until the column has passed. When they get back on the road, another truck column approaches, but this time with soldiers singing ..... in ENGLISH! Richardson and his men find out that Addis Ababa has fallen to the British and these men are on their way to the victory celebration. Meanwhile, the first truck column approaches the Italians, who are singing in happiness, only to have to raise their hands in surrender... AGAIN!

Later, the Italian prisoners are lined up to board a train to carry them to a prisoner of war camp. Major Richardson and his men are there too, as they have just been issued new vehicles to replace those destroyed earlier. The two groups can't help but notice one another and to think of all they've been through together. The difference is striking, as the British are decked out in new uniforms, while the Italians are in their dirty, torn and ragged uniforms. Major Richardson and Captain Blasi look at each other. The British troops look back at Richardson, seemingly hoping he will say or do something, but Richardson gives the order for his men to march off. Then suddenly he has his men do an about face and he orders them to present arms in a salute of respect for the Italians. Richardson salutes as the train begins to pull out, as a smiling Captain Blasi shouts "Ciao!" The Italians look on as the British men flash big smiles and even a "thumbs up" to them. Captain Blasi and the Italians finally get some respect, and the two groups are really "the best of enemies." 

* Mussolini was known for his strutting and serious poses in newsreels and while giving speeches, but his military forces were ill prepared, ill led, ill trained, ill equipped and ill supplied during World War Two (that's a lot of 'ills'), leaving 'ill' ... I mean... Il Duce's boasting to ring more than a little hollow.

WORD HISTORY:
Enemy-The ultimate origin of "enemy" is uncertain. It goes back to Latin "amare," which meant, "to love, to be fond of, to like." This produced Latin "amicus," meaning "friend." When coupled with the negative Latin prefix "in," tracing back to Indo European "n/ne," this gave Latin "inimicus;" literally, "not a friend" or, "an unfriend;" thus, "enemy," but also with the extended religious meaning, "someone possessed of evil, someone wishing to bring harm to others." This passed to Latin-based Old French in various spellings: "inimi, anemi, animi, enemi" (remember, there were not standards in those tymes... ah, I mean, times), and with the same meanings. English borrowed the word from French circa 1200 as, "enemi/enemy," before settling on the latter as the spelling. It replaced, in specific meaning only, "feond," which had meant "enemy," but "feond" has remained in English right up to the present, but with the updated form "fiend," although its close German cousin, "Feind," still is the primary German word for "enemy."   

Coffee: "Grounds" For A Love Affair

This article was updated slightly on June 19, 2015.


Each day one hell of a lot of people get their day going with coffee. In fact, quite a number of people keep their day going with coffee. "Apparently" coffee plants grew wild in Kaffa, a province of Ethiopia (also known for a long time as "Abyssinia") and the locals began using the plant to make a drink around 1000 A.D., give or take a hundred years or so. People from the Arabian Peninsula got hold of some plants and began to make a regular business out of growing and making coffee, but when the Turks acquired some plants in the 1500s, they seem to have been the first to roast the berries from the plant, the "beans," which they then ground and boiled in water. Venice was a major trade center in Europe in those times, and the Venetian traders brought coffee home in the early 1600s. It wasn't long before the Venetians and other Italians opened a number of coffeehouses, the first in Europe.* Trade and diplomatic missions brought coffee to France in the mid 1600s, where the French opened "cafés," the French term for "coffeehouses." The mid 1600s also brought coffee to England, where literally hundreds of coffeehouses opened in a relatively short period of time. Of course it wasn't long before European colonists from several nations began toting coffee off to the New World, where it has flourished ever since, and several countries are among the world's biggest producers of coffee: Brazil is the #1 coffee producer and Columbia is #2, while both Mexico and Guatemala are in the top ten. Indonesia, Vietnam and Ethiopia are also major producers in the top ten. Americans are likely more familiar with Columbia, as coffee from that country has been advertised here for decades. **

The latter part of the 1600s brought the Germans into the act, as the Turks besieged Vienna, then the capitol of the Old German Empire.*** When the siege was broken, the Turks left large quantities of supplies behind, including coffee beans. The coffee business soon took hold in Vienna and it spread to other German areas. Vienna is still known for its coffeehouses, where you pretty much need to take a class just to learn the various terms for coffee served in a variety of ways. I'd venture to say that any and all German and Austrian coffeehouses have my favorite, "Eiskaffee," or Ice Cream Coffee; cold coffee over vanilla ice cream in a tall glass, typically served with whipped cream and a cookie. If you order this, you get to cover a couple of your vices all in one order. What's not to like?

* Technically, the Turks, under the name, the Ottoman Empire, occupied a part of southeastern Europe in the Balkans, including the former city of Constantinople, which they eventually renamed Istanbul.

** For more see:  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coffee/map.html

*** The proper name was, "The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation."     

WORD HISTORY:
Coffee-The ultimate origins of this word are disputed, but while I understand the desire to claim the origins of the word for this popular drink, I lean toward the word being derived from the old Ethiopian province of "Kaffa," where "supposedly" the plant grew wild and was first used for making a beverage. Trade contact likely brought Arabic speakers to borrow a form of the word as, "qahwa/qahwah." This then was borrowed by Turkish as "kahveh." The Venetians, avid traders, learned of the beverage from the Turks, giving Italian "caffe." This was borrowed into English as "coffee" in the early 1600s, again, undoubtedly the result of trade and the resulting desire for the beverage.

Marshal Badoglio of Italy

"Pietro Badoglio"

Note about Italy and World War Two: Italy played a significant part in World War Two in Europe and North Africa. Benito Mussolini was the dictator of Italy, leader of Italian Fascism, and Adolf Hitler's closest ally. The Italian military generally performed poorly during the war, although there were times when Italians units fought as well as those from other nations. Italy entered the war in June of 1940 against Britain and France, but by July of 1943, Mussolini was deposed by his own Fascist Party and then arrested on the orders of King Victor Emmanuel III (Italian: Vittorio Emanuele). The King named Pietro Bodoglio as Prime Minister of Italy and the new government signed an armistice in September 1943. The Italian government then formed some military units to fight on the side of the Allies. Meanwhile, Mussolini was rescued in a daring mission by German commandos, who were glider-landed atop a mountain resort where the former dictator was being held. Mussolini then set up a "new" government in northern Italy, complete with military units to fight along side the Germans, who had occupied Italy. A growing Italian resistance (partisan) movement led efforts behind German lines to defeat the Germans and their Italian fascist allies.* This brought Italy into a virtual state of civil war. The stubborn German defense of Italy was finally broken by the Allies and the German forces in Italy surrendered.

While there were some prominent Italian military commanders during World War Two, I've chosen Pietro Badoglio to represent Italy, mainly because he headed the post-Mussolini government. Just for the record, "some" important Italian military commanders during World War Two: Ugo Cavallero, Alfredo Guzzoni, Giovanni Messe, Italo Gariboldi. For those interested in any of these generals or others not listed, check your local library. Please support your local library!

Pietro Badoglio was born in northwestern Italy. He attended military school and served in the army in Italian colonial wars in East Africa and in Libya.** Badoglio rose to general during World War One, although his role in a major Italian defeat in one battle during the war has been criticized by historians. He then became Army Chief of Staff. he was not especially fond of Mussolini at first, but Mussolini later promoted him to "Marshal" (equivalent to field marshal in other armies) and he was put in charge of the colony of Libya. When the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in East Africa lagged in the early going in 1936, Mussolini put Badoglio in overall charge of operations there. Almost immediately he had poison gas used on Abyssinian troops. Following the Italian victory, Badoglio was made Governor General of the newly conquered colony, but he quickly returned to his post as Army Chief of Staff.

While skeptical of Italian military fortunes in a major war, he remained on when Mussolini took the country into World War Two. When the poorly planned Italian invasion of Greece went awry, Badoglio resigned his post, although the exact reason for his resignation is unclear. It wasn't until the Allies invaded the large Italian island of Sicily that Badoglio reemerged to play a role in the war. Mussolini was deposed and arrested, and the King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Badoglio as Prime Minister of Italy. The new Badoglio government almost immediately began secret negotiations with the Allies for an armistice. The Italian government had to be careful, as there were many German troops in Italy, and the German weren't stupid. They knew of the possibility of an Italian surrender and they made plans to send in more troops to help secure the country. The armistice was announced as Allied troops were making a second landing in Italy on September 8 (an Allied force had initially landed on September 3), but the Germans successfully disarmed most Italian units over the course of the first few days, although there was some heavy fighting in places in Italy and in Yugoslavia. The government escaped the Germans and then declared war on Germany. Badoglio remained as Prime Minister until June of 1944, when he resigned. He died in 1956 at the age of 85. Marshal Badoglio was an important figure in the Italian surrender, but his use of poison gas against the Abyssinians stands as a blemish on his overall record.

* It was Italian partisans who captured and executed Mussolini and his entourage in late April 1945.

**Italy had Eritrea in East Africa as colony from the late 1800s, and Libya (in North Africa) was occupied and made into a colony by Italy in 1911. In both colonies, not all people accepted the Italians as rulers, and there were rebellious outbreaks that were suppressed by the Italian military.

WORD HISTORY:
Wife-This is another common word of uncertain ancient origin, and I'm not sold on some of the theories, but Old Germanic had "wiban," which meant "woman, female person." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wif," with the same meaning, but also later in Old English with the notion of "female spouse, wife" being a secondary meaning, which later became the primary meaning, as it is today. "Midwife" retains the original meaning of "woman," in general. Later too, the spelling varied from "wif" to "wyf," before the modern version. Common in the other Germanic languages (except Norwegian), although not necessarily used by all to the same degree: German has "Weib," which is used more in old style language for "woman, wife," as it was replaced by "Frau" as the common modern term. For those learning German, it is a word best avoided, as it has a derogatory tone to it for a woman now, with implication of "babe" or "doll," if you get my drift. Low German has "Wief" (female, woman); Dutch has "wijf" (female, woman); West Frisian has "wiif" (female, woman); Swedish and Danish have "viv" (woman); Icelandic has "víf" (woman). I did not find a modern form in Norwegian, where the term has undoubtedly died out, as one of the words for "woman" in Norwegian is related to English "queen," a word that also once simply meant "woman, lady" in English, before taking on the notion of a woman married to a tribal chieftain or king, and then later a "female ruler in her own right."

The German Question, Part One Hundred Nineteen

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B
"Foreign Policy & The German Question" (Part Two)

The Nazis held annual rallies in the city of Nuremberg (Nürnberg). In 1935, Hitler convened a session of the Reichstag in Nuremberg, where it had not met since the 1500s! The purpose? To pass laws aimed at Germany's Jews. The two laws passed by the Reichstag in Nuremberg were collectively called "The Nuremberg Laws" ("Die Nürnberger Gesetze"), and they passed by (surprise, surprise) a unanimous vote. These absolutely racist laws stripped German Jews of citizenship and prevented marriage between Jews and Germans. The Nazis also laid out the definition of a Jew: a person with three or four Jewish grandparents, while those people with one or two Jewish grandparents were termed "Mischlinge;" that is, "mixed," or in plain old racist American English, "half breeds."*

Around that same time, Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy, sent troops into the East African nation of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). The League of Nations voted sanctions against Italy, these sanctions essentially being a ban on weaponry being sold to Italy (and Abyssinia) and the prohibition of loans to Italy. The two powerhouses of the League of Nations, Britain and France, kept any sanctions from being too severe, as they wanted to remain on good terms with Mussolini, and to continue to use him to maintain a firewall, so to speak, against Hitler moving into Austria or southeastern Europe.** The League of Nations, however, still wanted to show it opposed Mussolini's aggression. This attempt "to have it both ways" failed miserably. The League, along with leaders Britain and France, was seen as too feeble to prevent aggressive wars, yet the sanctions against Italy, mild though they were, coupled with Hitler's verbal support of Mussolini's war in Abyssinia, moved Mussolini and Hitler closer together. The next time, the two fascist dictators worked in conjunction with one another to support Spanish fascism (the Falangist Party) and right wing strongman, General Francisco Franco, in the Spanish Civil War.

* For non-American readers, a bit of an explanation: When white American settlers came to this country, dating back to colonial times and through the westward expansion, some had children with the native population here. For quite some time these children were very much looked down upon by many (but not all), and the term "half breed" was essentially a derogatory term. We've come a long way since those times, and "many" Americans are now proud to claim "American Indian" heritage, at least many people I've talked with over the years, but I'm sure there are still some holdouts. They probably want to get even for "Custer's Last Stand," not being satisfied with the sweep of the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series.

** In 1934, the Austrian Chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, actually a dictator and a fascist himself, wanted to model Austria after Mussolini's Italy. Dollfuss stood in the way of any attempt to merge Austria with Germany (the term in German for this merger was "Anschluss," which means "merger, joining"). Mussolini guaranteed Austria's independence, and when Austrian Nazis assassinated Dollfuss in 1934, Mussolini sent Italian military reinforcements to the border with Austria to discourage any attempt by Hitler to achieve an "Anschluss." So it is important to remember, Hitler and Mussolini were not always "friends," but that was about to change.

Next... "Spain Brings Hitler and Mussolini Together" or alternate title, "Tapas and a Bullfight For Two?"

WORD HISTORY:
Luftwaffe-English got this compound from German, as it was the name for the German air force. Its component parts, "Luft" and "Waffe," both have related words in English, so I'll begin with "Luft," and its closely related English words "lift" and "loft." The ancient origin of "Luft" (and also therefore of "lift" and "loft") is unknown. Old Germanic had "luftuz," which meant "air, atmosphere, sky, heavens, even roof." This gave Old High German (the direct ancestor of modern German) "luoft," then "luft," and meaning "air," which then later was spelled with a capital "L," as all German nouns are capitalized. The same Old Germanic "luftuz" gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "lyft," and with the same meanings. "Lyft" then "seems" to have altered under the influence of the related Old Norse (North Germanic) word "lopt" (the "p" was pronounced "f"), which had the same general meaning, but also with more emphasis on the extended meanings "roof, ceiling, and then upper room, room by the ceiling." By the 1200s, English had borrowed the word "air" from Old French (from Latin, which it got from Greek), and it overtook "loft" in that meaning, leaving "loft" with its secondary meaning "room by the ceiling, upper room." Besides German "Luft" and English "loft," some Low German has "Loft" and some have "Luft," Dutch has "lucht," Frisian has "loft," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish have "luft," Icelandic has "loft." Of all these related Germanic words, only English "loft" no longer means "air," in general usage; however, Scottish English dialect still has "lift" for "air." German also has the verb "lüften," which means "to air out, ventilate;" just as English uses the verb form of "air" (air out a room). Lift, the verb, traces back to the same Old Germanic word "luftuz" (see above). This then gave off a verb form, "luftjaz." German has the verb "lüften," as noted above, Old Norse "lypta," seems to have used the notion of "air rising" to give its form of the Germanic verb the meaning "raise," and this then was borrowed into English in the late 1100s or early 1200s.^ Dutch has "lichten," which means "to empty out;" apparently the notion being "to lift items out of something." Low German Saxon has "lüchten," Norwegian has løft, Danish has "løfte," Swedish and Icelandic have "lyfta." The "Waffe" part of "Luftwaffe" will be in the next article.

^ The noun use of "lift" for elevator goes back to the 1850s.