Fresh Tomato Salad

Easy to make, with pretty easily obtainable ingredients, and with a variety of tomato types used.

Ingredients (multiple servings):

 

3 fresh and ripe Roma tomatoes, cut into bite-size pieces

2 ripe medium tomatoes, cut into bite-size pieces

12 ripe grape tomatoes, halved

1 medium heirloom tomato, cut into bite-size pieces

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

6 medium to large basil leaves, torn or cut into pieces

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

(optional) 1 heaping tablespoon capers

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne) or 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika 

In a bowl, add all of the ingredients and mix together well. Cover and refrigerate a minimum of 2 hours.

Fresh tomato salad, here with pieces of some salt stick rolls ...

WORD HISTORY:

Locate (location)-"Locate" is distantly related, through Indo European, to "stall" (noun for pen for animals) and "stall" (verb for "loss of power to move forward, come to a standstill, to delay," a word that goes back to the Germanic roots of English, but later with some French influence, which was derived from Germanic Frankish, and to "lieu" (commonly used in the phrase "in lieu of"), "local/locale," Latin-derived words borrowed by English from French, and to the "loco-" part of "locomotive" and "locomotion" borrowed from Latin (although the actual word "locomotive" is a borrowing from French). "Locate" goes back to Indo European "stel," meaning "to place, to set into a place, to put into a place," and this gave Latin the noun "locus" (via Italic "stlocos" and early Latin "stlocus"), meaning "a place, a spot, an area, a position," and from this developed the verb "locare" meaning "to put, to place, to set into position or into a place," one of the participle forms of which was "locatus," and from this English formed the verb "locate" in the early part of the 1500s, originally meaning "to settle into a place to live, to set up a business in a place," later also, "to find someone's or something's place (location)." "Location" was borrowed from Latin in the second half of the 1500s from "locatio" (accusative: "locationem"), meaning "a place, the state of being in a certain place," later adding, "an occupied place, a place available to be occupied for living or business, a leased place."      

Portuguese Black-Eyed Peas & Tuna Salad: Salada de Feijão Frade com Atum

Black-eyed peas are really a type of bean originally from Africa and brought to the New World by African slaves. They are eaten in several African countries like Senegal, Nigeria and others, as well as on many of the Caribbean islands, and they are popular in the American South and in parts of Brazil, especially in the Bahia region of that large South American country. The Portuguese likely took black-eyed peas back to Portugal from Africa and also from Brazil, which was a colony of Portugal for over 300 years until the 1820s. 

To keep things simple, I use canned black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained, but you can certainly use dried black-eyed peas, soak them and then cook them (2/3 cup dried black-eyed peas makes about 2 cups cooked). Further, I use canned tuna in olive oil, although sometimes I buy tuna in olive oil in a jar.   

Serve as a lunch dish or as a light evening meal with some crusty bread, or serve as a side dish or appetizer for a bigger meal.

 

Ingredients (4 to 6 serving, depending upon main dish or appetizer): 

 

2 cans black-eyed peas (15 to 16 ounces each), rinsed

1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons chopped parsley (or cilantro)

1 or 2 cans tuna in olive oil, flaked*

3 teaspoons white wine vinegar 

(optional) sugar to taste

3 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 teaspoon ground white (or black) pepper

1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon salt  

3 hard boiled eggs, chopped or cut into wedges

In a bowl, add the black-eyed peas, onion, garlic, parsley and flaked tuna; in a cup or a small bowl, add and mix the vinegar and oil (and sugar, if using), then pour it over the salad ingredients, toss to mix; season with white or black pepper and salt; top with chopped hard boiled eggs or hard boiled egg wedges.

 

* I use one 12 ounce can (it has 9 ounces of drained tuna), but you can use smaller cans, like 6 ounces with "about" 5 ounces drained; so, you should buy two for this recipe.  

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Cologne-This word is both the name of a city and a name for a product of alcohol, water and fragrant oils. "Cologne" is closely related to "colony," a word from Latin, and it's related to "culture," another word from Latin. "Cologne" goes back to Indo European "kwel," which had the notion, "move around, to turn or turn around;" thus also, "upend, revolve." This gave Latin "colere," meaning, "to till the land" ("move and turn the land over for planting"); thus by extension, "to cultivate, to farm;" thus also by extension, "to settle, to dwell." This produced the Latin noun "colonus," meaning, "settler, farmer;" thus also, "tenant farmer." This then gave Latin the noun "colonia" meaning, "settlement, large amount of cultivated land;" thus, "an estate," then also used for "land conquered, settled and occupied by Roman soldiers beyond Rome." What became the city of "Cologne" was founded by the Germanic tribe the Ubii" a few decades before the Christian Era and it was known to the Romans as "Oppidum Ubiorum." Agrippina, the daughter of a famous Roman general, Germanicus, was born there circa 15 AD/CE, and she later was the wife of the Emperor Claudius, whom she persuaded to raise the city's status to that of a "colony;" with the name "Colonia Agrippina" being used, although often rendered as simply "Colonia," which in German became "Köln." The name for the scented product came in the 1740s from Italian born^ Giovanni Maria Farina who moved to the city of Cologne in the early 1700s (he then apparently took the German form of "Giovanni;" that being, "Johann"), and he founded a company making "cologne," known to some by its French name, "Eau de Cologne" ("Water of Cologne") 

^ Farina was born right by the border with the Italian part of Switzerland (about 8% to 8 1/2% of Swiss are Italian speaking).

Carrot & Raisin Salad, American Style

In the United States, carrot and raisin salad often is a dish more associated with the southern part of the country. I'm often an "overkill" guy on sauces, gravies and salad dressings; and what I mean is, I don't skimp on those things in recipes, but that's not for everyone, and some people just barely coat this salad with dressing.  

 

Ingredients (5 servings): 

 

2 1/2 cups shredded carrot

3/4 cup raisins (dark or golden or mixed)

1/3 cup pineapple bits 

2 tablespoons pineapple juice 

1 heaping tablespoon finely chopped green onion (mainly white part)

1/3 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat type is fine)

1/4 cup sour cream (or thick yogurt)

1 or 2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons sunflower seeds (1/2 teaspoon for each serving), garnish 

In a bowl, add the mayonnaise, sour cream (or yogurt), honey, lemon juice, pineapple juice and salt; mix together very well. Add the shredded carrot, raisins, pineapple bits and green onion; keep folding to coat all of the ingredients with the dressing. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. Top each serving with some sunflower seeds.  

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Monkey-This has become a well known word for smaller primates in the English language, but its history is not easy; therefore, I'm going to work backwards. (NOTE: "Ape" had been the common word for primates, regardless of size, and it remains the word for larger primates to this day.^) The word "monkey" came into English circa 1530 as a noun. It is "likely" a borrowing from Low German "Moneke," the name of the son of Martin the Ape in "Reynard the Fox," a story from the Middle Ages. Low German likely got its form from a French diminutive, as French had "monne" (ape), likely borrowed from either Spanish "mona" or Old Italian "monna," with the later Italian diminutive being "monnicchio;" thus, "small ape, monkey." The story character name was rendered in Old French as "Monequin" and "Monnekin" 1300s (?). The source of these words is unknown, although some have suggested transliterated Arabic "maimum" (small ape), seemingly a euphemistic, indirect form actually meaning "highly favorable, advantageous, auspicious," as many Arabic speakers thought monkeys to be a bad omen and unlucky. The mid 1600s saw the verb develop from the noun, initially with the meaning, "to imitate," from a monkey's tendency to mimic actions of others, and later, with the imitations often being comic to humans; thus also, "to mock," and "to spend time with no particularly big purpose" ("monkey around"), but also, "to tease or taunt someone" ("to monkey with someone"), "to interfere with, to tamper with," after a monkey's curiosity to inspect, touch or bother things" ("to monkey with something").  

^ The history of the word "ape" is here at the end of the article at this link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/05/crab-louie.html

Crab Louie

"Crab Louie" is a salad that "seems" to be from the early 20th Century, perhaps in San Francisco, or at least first really established there, even if it came there from elsewhere. The dressing is similar to "Thousand Island Dressing,"* although not exactly the same, and this dressing has a little kick, but the hot sauce or cayenne pepper won't fry your tongue, it just adds some "zip." of course, if you like really spicy hot food, go for it, and add more hot sauce or cayenne pepper. You can certainly use Thousand Island and add a little hot sauce or cayenne pepper to it, but this actual dressing is not hard to make. 

As I've gotten older, I'm more sensitive to sour flavors, so I tend to add sweeteners to some foods now, and I do that for the dressing in this dish. I listed honey as "optional" for the dressing, but I made a big spread in the amount from 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon, but some folks may not prefer any honey. 

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

12 to 16 ounces lump crab meat or imitation chunk crab meat

4 to 8 romaine lettuce leaves (I prefer a couple of leaves, myself)

4 roma tomatoes, cut into quarter wedges

8 asparagus spears

16 olives, whole or halved

8 green onions (scallions)

4 hard boiled eggs, cut into wedges

 

For the dressing:

 

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup chili sauce

1/2 teaspoon chili powder (I use ancho chili powder)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon hot sauce or ground cayenne pepper (or other ground red pepper)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 heaping tablespoon sweet pickles (or gherkins or sweet relish), finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground black or white pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt  

(optional) 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon honey

 

In a bowl, mix all of the dressing ingredients together. Cook the asparagus in salted water for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes, drain, let cool. In a glass bowl or glass cup (I actually use one of my glass measuring cups), add all of the ingredients, except the honey, if using. Mix everything together well, then give it a little taste to see if you want to add any honey; if yes, I suggest starting with just one teaspoon, mixing it in, then tasting the dressing again to see if it needs more honey. Use the same procedure until you get to the taste level you prefer. You can arrange the component salad parts into separate segments (as I have for the photos below), or you can mix them in together. Each serving gets: 3 to 4 ounces of crab/imitation crab, 1 or 2 romaine lettuce leaves, 1 quartered Roma tomato (or chopped, if you'd prefer), 2 asparagus spears (can be cut into pieces; I left them whole for the photos below), 4 olives (can be halved, if you'd like), 2 green onion, cleaned and trimmed (can also be cut into pieces, if you'd prefer), 1 quartered hard-boiled egg; some dressing on the crab or in a separate ramekin. 

 

* Thousand Island Dressing is easy to make at home, here is the link to the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/04/homemade-thousand-island-dressing.html

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Ape-The origin of this word is unknown, and there is naturally a good possibility that the word is from some language where monkeys and apes were common animals. What is known is, Old Germanic "apo" was used as a general word for non-human primates of any size. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "apa," with the same meaning, and it wasn't until circa 1600 that the meaning came to be used for the larger primates, as by that time English had borrowed the word "monkey," which was then used for smaller primates. The spelling "ape" had taken place a few hundred years before that time. The other Germanic languages have forms all meaning "ape, monkey": German "Affe." ^ Low German Saxon, Dutch and West Frisian  "aap," Danish "abe," Icelandic "api," Swedish "apa," Norwegian "ape" (pronounced "ah-pa").

 

^ The high dialects of German often experienced a sound shift of "p" to "f," or sometimes to "pf;" thus English has "pipe," but standard German has "Pfeife" (pronounced like "pfeye-fah"), English "ship," but German "Schiff," English "sleep" (noun), but German "Schlaf." 

Chicken Salad

You can use store or restaurant bought rotisserie or grilled chicken, or cook some chicken yourself in the oven, on the grill, under the broiler, or boiled.

The cayenne pepper won't scorch your mouth, and I have really hot cayenne, but the chicken salad was not hot at all.

 

Ingredients (4 to 6 servings):

 

1 pound boneless cooked chicken, chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons very finely chopped onion (red or white)

2 tablespoons finely chopped sweet pickle (or dill pickle, if you prefer)

1 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 good pinch cayenne pepper

1/4 cup pecans, toasted (buy toasted or toast them yourself)

whole wheat or white bread

 

 In a cup or a bowl, add the mayonnaise, yogurt, buttermilk, garlic powder and honey; mix together very well (whisk or I sometimes use a stick blender), set it aside briefly. In a bowl, add the chicken, finely chopped onion, finely chopped sweet pickle (or dill pickle, if using), celery salt, ground black pepper and pinch of cayenne pepper. Mix these ingredients into the chicken, it doesn't have to be perfect, as next, add the mayo/yogurt dressing, and mix further to completely coat all of the chicken. Add the pecans and just fold them through the salad. Serve on whole wheat or white bread. 

 

 Chicken salad on whole wheat bread with a few pecan pieces to top it off ...

Full chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat ...

,

WORD HISTORY:

Copious-This word is related to "opulent" and to "copy," words borrowed from French, but with heavy reinforcement by Latin, to "opus" and to "optimum," words borrowed from Latin. "Copious" is really a prefixed word and a suffixed word, with the prefix going back to Indo European "kom" which meant, "beside, near, together," and this gave Latin both "con" and "com," with the idea of "together, with," and the "com-" and "con-" forms sometimes were reduced to "co-." The main part of "copious" goes back to Indo European "op," which had the notion of "perform work, to make or produce;" thus also, "to have the force; that is, the ability to do." This gave Latin "ops," which meant "resources;" thus also, "wealth." With the prefix this produced the Latin noun "copia," meaning "plentiful supply, riches, resources," and this produced the adjective "copiosus,"^ which meant "plentiful, abundant." English borrowed the word in the mid 1300s from Latin.

 

^ The suffix "osus" was used in Latin to convey the notion of the word "having much, being full of, well supplied with, being inclined toward."   

Latvian Meat Patties: Kotletes

There are lots of recipes for meat patties in Latvia, as they are quite popular there, and this is my version. Mushrooms and sour cream are certainly used in the cuisines of numerous countries, and these two food products are often used in eastern Europe, including in Latvia.

With 2 pounds of meat, I got 12 patties; of course, you can make larger patties.

 

Serve with boiled potatoes and dark brown rye bread, if you can find Latvian rye bread, go for it! You can also do a little salad, see further below.

 

Ingredients:

 

For the patties:

 

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1 cup chopped onion, small chop

3 cloves garlic, minced

oil for frying, divided use (to saute onions and garlic, then for the meatballs/patties)

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

breadcrumbs for coating the patties

For the sauce/gravy:

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup beef stock

1/3 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons flour

2 cups chopped mushrooms, small chop

2 tablespoons chopped dill

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

salt (if your beef stock has a lot of salt, you can skip adding salt, or use a small amount)

 

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until the onion begins to soften, then add the garlic and saute another 1 minute, reduce heat to low and saute a further 1 minute then remove the skillet from the heat and let the onion/garlic mix cool down a bit (it doesn't have to be completely cooled). Add the ground pork and ground beef to a bowl, then add the cooled onion and garlic, ground black pepper and salt and mix everything together (best to use your hands). Add the egg and knead it into the meat mixture. Put some breadcrumbs on a plate, take enough meat to roll into the size of a golf ball, then roll it in the breadcrumbs to coat it. Continue this until all of the meat is used. Keep the meatballs on a plate, then heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add some of the rolled meat to the skillet, allowing some space between them, then gently press down on each with a spoon or spatula to just slightly flatten them into something more of meat patties, rather than meatballs. Fry until browned on each side and cooked through. Remove the fried patties to a plate. Drain the oil from the skillet and use a paper towel to wipe any meat bits from the skillet. Over low heat, melt the butter, add the chopped mushrooms to the skillet and saute until softened. Sprinkle the flour over the mushrooms and mix it into the butter. Cook for about 2 minutes to remove the raw flour taste, then stir in the beef stock and increase the heat to medium until the mixture comes to a simmer. Stir in the black pepper (and salt, if using) and continue to simmer the gravy until it thickens. Reduce the heat to low again and stir in the sour cream until it is well mixed in. Add the dill and stir for about 1 minute, remove from the heat. Serve the patties with some gravy spooned over them and some boiled potatoes. 

For a nice little salad addition: some chopped or torn lettuce leaves, chopped cucumber and chopped tomato with sour cream dressing of 3 parts sour cream to 1 part buttermilk, some minced garlic, some dill and parsley, ground black pepper and salt 

 

 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Junior-This word is related to "juvenile" and to the main part of "rejuvenate," both borrowed by English from Latin, and it is distantly related to "young," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Junior" goes back to the Indo European root "yeu," which had the notion of "vigor, vitality." This gave Old Italic "juvenis," meaning "young," and this passed to its Latin offspring as the adjective "iuvenis," meaning "young" (same noun form seemingly meant "young man"), and the comparative form was "iuvenior," meaning "younger," and it was then contracted to "iunior," and English borrowed the word as "junior" in the last part of the 1200s, meaning "less in age than someone else," often included after a son's name when the son carried the same name as the father, but the abbreviated form "Jr" did not come into usage until the first couple of decades of the 1600s. The noun form was derived from the adjective in the early 1500s meaning, "a son, a younger male in a household," then also, "a common nickname for a son of the same name as his father." Both the adjective and the noun picked up the additional "a person of smaller size," and then a bit later also used for "clothing designed for smaller people, mainly those less than adult age." The late 1800s saw the use of the noun for "the third year of college," followed not long thereafter by its use for students in high school. "Junior high school" seems to be from circa 1910.     

Luxembourg Firestone Salad: Feierstengszalot

This salad seems to have developed in perhaps the 1600s or early 1700s as a way of using leftover beef. Lëtzebuergesch, the German dialect/language of Luxembourg, has "Feiersteng," standard German has "Feuerstein," and English has "firestone," originally as "fyrstan;" that is, "flint." The name of the dish "seems" to come from the slices of cooked beef representing, or looking like, pieces of "firestone." 

You can use leftover roast beef of any type, or you can boil or roast some beef just for this dish. When I made the salad for this article, the beef was so tender, even after being in the refrigerator overnight, that I really couldn't slice it properly, so I tore it into smaller pieces.

Often served with boiled potatoes and baguettes for a great lunch ...

 

Ingredients (4 servings): 

 

1 1/2 cups boiled or roasted beef in bite size pieces

2 to 3 hard boiled eggs, sliced

1/3 cup mild pickles, chopped

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup tomato, chopped or grape tomatoes halved

1/3 cup vegetable oil, regular olive oil or sunflower seed oil

1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons dried tarragon

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt 

4 to 5 tablespoons heavy cream

2 to 3 tablespoons chopped parsley or chives

Cut or tear the beef into bite size pieces and put it into a bowl. Add the chopped onion, chopped pickles and chopped tomato, toss to mix. Distribute into individual salad bowls or onto individual small plates and top each with some hard boiled egg slices, then spoon some of the dressing (see further) over the salad and sprinkle each salad with some chopped chives or parsley. For the dressing: In a bowl, add the oil, mustard, tarragon, pepper, salt and cream. Whisk everything together until it thickens to the desired consistency.  

WORD HISTORY:

Firestone & Flint- Firestone is simply the combination of "fire" and "stone." For the history of the word "fire," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/07/german-question-part-one-hundred_13.html

For the history of "stone," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/10/german-question-part-forty-nine_27.html

 

Relatives of "firestone": German has "Feuerstein" (once spelled "fiurstein"), Low German has "Füürsteen," Dutch has "vuursteen," West Frisian "fjoerstienne" (?) 

 

"Flint" is related to "split," a word of Germanic derivation that had a form in Old English, which died out, but then was later borrowed from Low German to give us our modern word. "Flint" goes back to Indo European "splei/spley," which had the notion, "to separate from, to split off from." This produced Indo European "splind," meaning "split, cleave." This gave Old Germanic "flintaz," "seemingly" meaning "very hard stone split from rock." This gave Old English "flint," with the meaning, "hard stone," and then "hard stone that sparks to start a fire;" thus, "flint stone," a meaning that is still with us to this day. German once had "flins," "hard stone," but German used forms of modern German "Feuerstein" (fire stone), and "flins" eventually died out, Low German had "vlint" and "vlintsten;" that is, "flint stone" in the Middle Ages, but apparently these have died out, and the same happened to Dutch "vlint." Danish has "flint," perhaps from Danish (or is it a borrowing from English, or perhaps a refashioning of the Low German form? Danish and Low German have had much interaction over the centuries, including up to the present). Swedish has "flinta," and German borrowed "Flinte" from Swedish in the 1600s as the word for a flintlock musket, where the gunpowder for firing was ignited by flint striking a piece of metal (called a 'frizzen').       

Nigerian Salad

Nigeria is a country in the western part of Africa with a population of about 210 million. The 1500s saw the Portuguese begin to have lots of contact with the Nigerians for trade, primarily via the city of "Eko," which the Portuguese called "Lagos," which has remained the name of the city. (Note: Lagos is one of the world's largest cities, with a metro population of some 25 million.) The slave trade was centered in the Nigerian region and by the early 1800s, the British had outlawed slavery, and they actively fought against slave traders, which brought their involvement in that general area of Africa, and by the early 1900s, Nigeria became a colony of Britain, a status that lasted until 1960. While there are hundreds of languages and dialects spoken in modern Nigeria, English is the official language.  

There are naturally variations to some of the ingredients, and some recipes include pasta or boiled potatoes. Green cabbage is traditional, but I like to use red cabbage at times, if I have it, which I did when I made the salad for the photos below (it adds great color). You can peel the cucumber or leave the peel on, or partially peel it.

 

Ingredients (4 to 6 full servings):

 

2 cups shredded lettuce

2 cups shredded cabbage 

1 cup shredded carrot

1 cup chopped cucumber, small chop

1 cup chopped tomato, small chop

1/2 cup chopped red onion, small chop

1 cup baked beans*

3 or 4 hard boiled eggs

1/2 cup corn (canned, frozen/thawed/off the cob) 

1 to 1 1/2 cups salad cream, Heinz or homemade**

 

In a large bowl/dish, add the lettuce, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, tomato and red onion. Mix to combine (I use my hands). You can serve up the vegetable mixture in individual servings, then add some corn over the top of each serving, then add some dabs of baked beans around the top. Quarter the hard boiled eggs, then place a few pieces of the egg around each serving, followed by some salad cream in the middle of the salad. Otherwise, you can put the corn, baked beans and hard boiled egg pieces on the top of the vegetable mixture in your large bowl/dish for everyone to serve themselves. Put the salad cream in a separate dish for each person to add to their salad.   

 

* Heinz beans are, and have been, very popular in Britain and in some former British colonies. While they are "similar" to the beans the company markets in the U.S., they are slightly different. You can find the British style Heinz beans in some U.S. supermarkets (if they aren't with the other canned beans, check the international section) and in some specialty shops that deal with international products. If you like looking for products, and you want to try to make as close to a genuine "Nigerian Salad" as possible, the recipes I've seen over the years for the salad all had the Heinz beans, an influence carried over from the time when Nigeria was a colony of the British; so, you'll want to try to find the British style Heinz beans. If the type of beans isn't that important to you, use the baked beans of your choice. By the way, the same is true of the salad cream, as the Heinz brand is very popular in Britain and in some of the former colonies, including in Nigeria. It is not easy to find in the U.S., and while it is available online, it will cost you more than a couple of dollars for a bottle, perhaps more like about $8.00 or more, and then there are the shipping charges. I'm not here to market for Heinz, but these are the products commonly used by Nigerians, so it is what it is.   

 

** For homemade salad cream, here is the link to the recipe:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2021/08/british-salad-cream.html

WORD HISTORY:

Jumbo-This is one of those words that requires the use of "could be," "possibly," "maybe," "perhaps," as the reason for the name is not really known, although the speculation for the name makes some sense, but that does not guarantee that it's true. "Jumbo" was the name of an orphaned elephant calf captured in East Africa in the 1860s. It was said to have been an unusually large elephant calf, and it grew into a huge adult. The young growing elephant was sent to Europe, spending time in Italy, Germany, France and England, before being sold to American circus showman and promoter (and exploiter) Phineas "P.T." Barnum in the early 1880s. The elephant's immense size had proven to be an attraction in Europe and Barnum popularized the attraction even more. Of course, the question of the day is, why was the baby elephant named "Jumbo?" Some have speculated that the name was taken from Swahili "jumbe," which meant "chief, leader." The abnormally large elephant certainly fit with its name as a "chief" or a "leader," and as initially Europeans turned out in considerable numbers to view "Jumbo," the name also tied in nicely with a creature from Africa.^ The name became so well known, that the idea of its size provided the basis for other abnormally large objects to have the word applied to them as an adjective, a use still in existence to this day. Another possibility is that the name came from a European-ized version of "nzamba," a word that meant "elephant" in Kikongo, a language spoken in and around the Congo region. I use "European-ized," as one of the elephant's original captors was a German.

 

^ By the mid 1800s, many European countries were colonizing regions of Africa (or had already colonized some areas).   

 

Beets, Kale & Fennel Salad

A great salad!

 

Ingredients:

 

3 roasted beets (tennis ball size), sliced into about 1 inch length and 1/4 inch thickness *

1 1/2 cups fennel, raw, chopped

some fennel fronds 

2 1/2 cups curly or lacinato kale leaves, torn or cut into bite-size pieces, not fine pieces

2 1/2 cups beet greens, torn or cut into bite-sized pieces

1/2 cup pecorino romano shavings

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

homemade blue cheese dressing for serving** 

                               or

homemade ranch dressing***

In a large bowl, add the cut beets, fennel, fennel fronds, kale, beet greens, pecorino romano shavings, ground black pepper and salt; toss to mix everything well (I do it by hand). Serve topped with homemade blue cheese dressing. You can serve the salad with a side dish of extra pecorino romano shavings for those who like more cheese.  

* For oven roasted beets, here is the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/06/roasted-beets.html 

 

** The recipe for homemade blue cheese dressing:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/07/homemade-blue-cheese-dressing.html

 

*** The recipe for homemade ranch dressing:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/06/homemade-ranch-dressing.html

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Balm (Balsam)-"Balm" goes back to transliterated Hebrew "basam," which meant "spice, pleasant smell." Greek borrowed the word as "balsamon" meaning "the Arabian balsam tree, or the oil of this tree," which was used for perfume, and Latin borrowed this as "balsamum," with the same meanings. Old French rendered the word as "basme," and English borrowed that form circa 1200, but also "baume," a form from Anglo-Norman, also spelled "bawm/bawme" in English, and this later became "balm" (1500s?) in imitation of the Latin spelling with "l". The meaning also moved from "perfume," seemingly to a parallel meaning, "annointing oil used to soothe," to "oily substance used to treat pain or wounds;" thus also "any person or anything that soothes someone's emotional pain." The word "balsam" is from the Latin "balsamum," mentioned above, and indeed, it was used in that form by English more than a thousand years ago for "soothing oil of some plants," and later it was also used for "the resin of these plants," which was chewed. By about the mid 1500s, the word was whittled down to "balsam," where it has remained ever since, but the meaning for the resin died out, but the "soothing oil" meaning expanded to many types of "ointment used to soothe wounds, injuries or certain inflammatory conditions;" thus it is really synonymous with "balm."    

Kenyan Rice & Salad: Pilau and Kachumbari

Kenya is a country in East Africa with a coastline along the Indian Ocean. It has a population of "about" 55 million and its capital city is Nairobi. Swahili and English (British style) are the primary languages used in government, schools and business, but other regional African languages are spoken on an every day basis, along with hybrid forms of English with numerous African dialect influences. Kenya came under British control in the latter part of the 1800s, initially as part of the "East African Protectorate," then later as an outright "colony." This brought a number of immigrants to Kenya from India, itself a British colony at that time. In those times, India included what later became the separate countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh. There are lots of Indian influences in Kenyan food.*

 

I read quite a few recipes about pilau, and several used basmati rice, so that's what I chose to use. 

 

Ingredients (4 servings): 

 

For the pilau:

 

1 cup basmati rice

1 red onion (tennis ball size), peeled and chopped (not finely)

3 garlic cloves, chopped or minced

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, minced

2 inch cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon ground cumin 

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

2 bay leaves

2 cups chicken stock

2/3 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt (if the chicken stock has a lot of salt, you can omit adding this salt)

1/4 cup oil (vegetable or olive)

 

In a heavy bottom pan, add the oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and saute for about 2 to 3 minutes, stir the onion to prevent sticking or burning. Add the chopped or minced garlic and the fresh ginger and saute a further 45 seconds, then add the tomatoes and stir (doesn't have to be totally constant) as the vegetables continue to cook. Add the cinnamon stick, ground cumin, ground cardamom and bay leaves, stir again, then add the rice and stir to mix everything together well, then add the chicken stock, and stir some more. Add the ground black pepper and salt (if using) and let the mixture come to a simmer, then reduce the heat to maintain a bare simmer (stove settings can vary, but likely you'll need "low" or "very low"). Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes, then remove the lid to see how much liquid remains. Replace the lid and continue cooking until all of the liquid is absorbed. Remove the pan from the heat and ... guess what? Stir to fluff and mix again (remove the bay leaves).  

 

For the kachumbari:

 

2 tomatoes (baseball size), diced

1 red onion (tennis ball to baseball size), chopped

1 medium cucumber, peeled, or partially peeled (like stripes), diced

1 to 2 chili peppers (jalapeños are good for this), seeded and chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped/minced

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/3 cup fresh coriander (also called 'cilantro'), chopped

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt (more or less to your taste)

(optional) 1 teaspoon honey

(optional) 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

This is mainly about chopping the ingredients; so, when that's done, add the tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, chili pepper, garlic, coriander (cilantro), black pepper and salt to a bowl. Mix everything together (I do it by hand). If you plan to serve the entire salad, then add the lime juice (or mix together the lime juice, honey and oil and then add to the salad), but once you add the juice, if you have leftovers, the salad will begin to lose its "crispness," so I add the juice dressing per serving, not to the whole salad. Also, if you use honey, pop it into the microwave for just a couple of seconds (only) and it will help when you're mixing it with the oil and lime juice. 

I had fried chicken with my pilau and kachumbari (see photos below). Someone told me to simply toss the chicken in seasoned flour and then fry it, which is what I did, but I didn't like it, the feathers were too much for me. So, I plucked the feathers from another chicken and repeated the process, which worked out much better. hahaha  You can serve another type of meat, or just have the pilau and kachumbari as a lunch dish.

* This is an example of Indian influence on Kenyan food: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/03/kenyan-potato-bites-potato-bhajias.html

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Cricket (2)-This is the name of the sport/game, not the name for the insect, which has a different history. While the history of this word for a game of two teams played with a ball and bats is shaky,^ it likely is closely related to "crutch," and also related to "crook/crooked" and "creep," and these are all words from Germanic, and it is also likely related to "crochet," a word borrowed by English from French, but French had the word from Germanic, more than likely from Frankish, but perhaps from, or reinforced by, Old Norse. The game usage of the word "cricket" goes back to Indo European "ger/grewg," which had the notion "to bend, to turn, to twist," which gave Old Germanic "krukjon," which meant "crooked shaft." This then became "krukjo" in West Germanic with the further meaning of "staff with a crooked handle or arm support," which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "crycc(e)" meaning, "crutch, bent/curved staff." Now, this developed into modern "crutch," but its Flemish^^ cousin "krik" (bent staff, curved stick) "seems" to lie at the heart of the usage of the word "cricket," the game; at least the game that has been known by that name in England/Britain, although there may have been similar versions of the modern game long ago.^^^ "Supposedly" the word "krikets" developed in southeastern England from the Flemish word (there were quite a number of immigrants from Flanders there in the 1500s through the 1700s, many associated with cloth and weaving), and this was then anglicized as "cricket." The mid 1800s saw the secondary meaning develop in England of "the proper way to do things," likely from the notion of "play the game of cricket properly," although this meaning is often put into the negative for something being done unfairly as, "that's not cricket" ("that's not fair or proper").

 

^ Unraveling the shaky history of the word "cricket" is somewhat equivalent to unraveling the shaky history of the game itself, which "may" have come from various similar games that eventually produced the immediate forerunner of the modern game, but to which the name came to be applied. When I say the history of the word "cricket" is "shaky," I really mean the specifics are tough to determine, although the broad history of the word seems clear.  

 

^^ Flemish is the dialect of Dutch spoken in the Flanders part of Belgium. In times long past, Flemish was seen as its own language by some, but in more recent times it has been viewed as a regional dialect of Dutch. I watch numerous language programs, and I have noticed that Belgians from Flanders now often say they speak Dutch, although I'm sure there are some who still say they speak Flemish (Vlaams). Dutch, including the Flemish dialect, and many of the nearby German dialects (that western part of Germany, Luxembourg and Lorraine) all developed from Frankish, the Germanic language (dialect) of the Franks. 

 

^^^ Seemingly in the 1600s and up until the early second half of the 1700s, the ball was rolled along the ground (bowled) and batted with bent/curved sticks like modern hockey sticks, but in the second half of the 1700s the ball was thrown (pitched), leading to the abandonment of the curved stick in favor of a straight bat. 

Bulgarian Salad: Shopska Salata

Bulgaria is a country in the Balkans bordering on the Black Sea in southeastern Europe. The country traces its history back to the Bulgars, one of the Turkic groups from Asia who eventually migrated into Europe. The Bulgars settled in a part of the Balkans and they mixed with the inhabitants there, many of whom were Slavic. This led to the Turkic language of the Bulgars being overtaken and replaced by the Slavic based language of the region that came to be called Bulgarian, which is written in Cyrillic, as are Serbian, Russian and Ukrainian, for instance.*

 

This salad is one of the national dishes of Bulgaria, with its main components providing the colors of the Bulgarian flag (white-green-red); however, the salad is also well known in Serbia and in Macedonia (North Macedonia), one of the former components of Yugoslavia.** Bulgarian sirene cheese is not easy to find, and you can substitute Bulgarian feta cheese, which might be a little easier to find, or just use Greek feta cheese, which is easy to find, although Bulgarian feta is more tart than its Greek cousin. NOTE: I get Bulgarian feta here in Cleveland at the "Culinary Specialties" shop at the West Side Market (it's not expensive).

 

Ingredients (4 to 5 servings):  

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 medium cucumber, peel on, split lengthwise and seeds scooped out, then chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 white or yellow onion 

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/3 cup sunflower oil (or Greek olive oil)

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Bulgarian sirene cheese (substitute Bulgarian or Greek feta cheese), crumbled

(optional) some large green olives for garnish  

 

Add the tomatoes, cucumber, green and red bell peppers, onion and parsley to a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together well the oil, red wine vinegar, ground black pepper and salt. Refrigerate the vegetables and dressing mixture for a minimum of 2 hours, then mix the dressing well again and add it to the salad, tossing the vegetables to coat with the dressing. Top each serving with some crumbled cheese.  Optionally add some large green olives around the edge of each serving or on top.

 

* "Cyrillic" is a writing system developed back in about the 900s (A.D.) and it is named in honor of the Eastern Orthodox saint, Cyril.

 

** Macedonia is a region in the Balkans that has been contested by Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and (the former) Yugoslavia. The terminology "Macedonia" itself is controversial, as across the border lies the Greek region of Macedonia. When Yugoslavia dissolved in the early 1990s, its former component state of "Macedonia" became an independent country. In early 2019 the "official" name was changed to "(Republic of) North Macedonia," although many citizens there do not agree with the renaming. 

 

  

WORD HISTORY:

Desk-This word is related to "disk/disc" and to "dish," words tracing back to Greek, then borrowed by Latin and then borrowed by English, to "dais," a word borrowed from French, which had it from Latin, which had it from Greek. The ultimate origin of "desk" is unknown, but it goes back to transliterated Ancient Greek "diskos," meaning "a round, flat plate or stone." This was borrowed by Latin as "discus," meaning "dish, platter," and in Italian this devloped as "desco," meaning, "plate, platter," but also "table for eating," and "writing table for an official." Latin "seemingly" took the Italian form as "desca," with the "writing table" idea prevailing as the primary meaning by circa 1300, and English borrowed the word in the mid 1300s with that same meaning. The idea of a desk being used by officials or authorities in some capacity brought about usage in that sense, even though a physical desk was not necessarily involved, as in, weather or sports segments of news on radio or television, "Now for tonight's weather, here's Jim from the weather desk." A "desk job" came into use (late 1800s?) to contrast a clerical or official position with a job of manual labor.  

Olivier Salad: Russian Salad

The developer of this salad was Lucien Olivier, a chef from Belgium, who actually might have been born in France, and he developed the salad in the 1860s at the Hermitage, a popular restaurant in Moscow. Olivier either owned the restaurant, or he was one of the owners, but whatever the case, he did perform chef's duties at the restaurant. The thing is, the salad, which is really a type of potato salad, he put together changed a great deal over the years, and since Chef Olivier guarded the recipe, no one truly knew the exact ingredients, although the main items were obvious. Further, however, even some of the main ingredients changed over time and his presentation of the salad also changed, as for one thing, the sauce, which he originally used to top the salad, he later mixed it into the salad. The popularity of the salad brought numerous variations in recipes, including in areas beyond Russia. As such, this is my version, which I've given as vegetarian, but if you'd like, mix in some diced ham or diced chicken breast. Of course, you can use the meatless salad as a side dish to a serving of meat (see photos below). 

Ingredients (multiple servings):

1 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat type is fine)
1/4 cup sour cream (reduced fat type is fine)
2 to 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 medium potatoes, boiled in their skins, cooled, peeled and diced
1 medium to large carrot, peeled and diced
1 cup cooked peas, cooled and drained
1/4 cup diced gherkins
2 to 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
3 tablespoons capers 
2 tablespoons chopped dill
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon chopped dill, the ground black and white pepper and the salt. In a much larger dish, add the diced potatoes, diced carrot, peas, diced gherkins, chopped egg, capers and 1 tablespoon chopped dill. Gently mix the salad to distribute the main ingredients, then mix in the dressing (I add half of the dressing, mix, then add the other half and mix, but whatever you prefer to do).

NOTE: I consulted the article at the following link for some of the information about the history of this salad:  https://web.archive.org/web/20180718213638/http://www.sras.org/Russian_olivier_salad

"Olivier Salad" as a side dish for a smoked pork chop ...

WORD HISTORY: 
Mammoth-This word for "an extinct type of large elephant of shaggy hair and curved tusks" seems to come from Uralic, the language family with prominent members Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian, but with numerous other smaller and less well known languages. Uralic is thought to have developed in and around the Ural Mountains. Uralic languages have forms like "me, ma, meh, mah," having to do with "earth;" that is, "soil, land," with further Uralic forms like "ahnt," meaning "horn, tusk." The idea is that these two forms were combined to describe the large hairy creature with long curved tusks. As Russian moved northward and eastward it borrowed the word as transliterated "mamant," then later as "mamont," as tusks and fossils of mammoths were found in western Siberia in the 1600s and 1700s. English borrowed the word in the early 1700s from Russian, but likely with heavy reinforcement from Dutch "mammuth," which Dutch got from Russian. German borrowed the word in the 1700s, initially as "Mammuth," then "Mammut," but German borrowed it from French "mammouth," itself from Russian. English also developed usage of the word adjectivally to indicate "very large in structure, gigantic."        

Brussel Sprout Salad

A great salad with no cooking, except for a few seconds to toast the seeds, and that's not absolutely necessary. It's good as a side dish or with some bread or rolls as a nice lunch. The only time consuming part is with the Brussels sprouts themselves. The best way to prepare them is to split the sprouts lengthwise, then to remove the stem from the sprout halves by cutting a 'V' at the bottom (see more in the instructions below). You can easily vary the amounts of the ingredients if you prefer; for instance, if you like pears, just chop up some more and eat them yourself, don't fool with the recipe!!! You thought I was going to say "add them to the salad," which you certainly can do. Haha  I suggest making a good quantity of the dressing by adjusting the amounts below, and then storing the extra amount in a jar or other glass container, not metal or plastic, as the vinegar can interact with these materials. I don't care much for sour foods, so I use more honey in the dressing, but I don't recommend reducing the amount of vinegar, as you want the vinegar to help preserve the salad, and it will keep in the refrigerator for a few days. If you make some extra dressing, you can add a little of it to future servings. 

Ingredients (numerous servings):

1 pound Brussels sprouts, washed, stem removed, then sliced
1 pear, green or red, skin on, rinsed, cored and chopped  
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup pepitas (or sunflower seeds), lightly toasted
1/2 cup crumbled or shaved Pecorino Romano

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 or 3 tablespoons honey (your preference for sweetness)
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
(optional) 1/2 teaspoon salt (the cheese has salt)

Rinse the Brussels sprouts, remove the stem and any discolored leaves. To remove the stem, split the sprouts lengthwise. You can then easily see the split stem. Remove it by cutting a 'V' shape. Slice the sprout halves crosswise into 3 or sometimes 4 pieces. Add the sprout slices to a bowl of water as you go. Stir the sliced sprouts around in the water with your hand. Drain the sprouts and lay them out on some doubled paper towels to drain well. The "heavy duty" work is done. Put the sliced sprouts into a large bowl, add the chopped pear, dried cranberries, seeds and Pecorino Romano. (It isn't necessary to toast the seeds, but if you'd like to do so, simply heat a skillet over medium heat and then add the seeds. Shake the skillet or stir the seeds and toast them until they just begin to turn lightly browned.) In a glass jar, bottle or other glass container, add the dressing ingredients and shake or mix to blend everything. Give it a little taste to see if you want to add more honey (or more vinegar, if you like a more sour taste). Add the dressing to the salad and mix well to distribute the dressing throughout the salad. You can serve the salad then, but it's better if it has a minimum of a couple of hours in the refrigerator. Cover and store the unused portion in the refrigerator for a few days.   

WORD HISTORY:
Brook-There is a verb in English that has come to be spelled the same way as the noun, but it is unrelated to the noun. If you are interested in the verb form, here is the link,^ but this is the noun meaning, "a small stream," but also meaning "marshy land" in some parts of England (see relatives below). While the origin of this word is considered to be uncertain to some, I'm pretty much convinced it goes back to Indo European "mrog/mreg," meaning "marshland,"^^ which was from Indo European "mereg," which meant "borderland," with the idea that particular geographic features have always been used to set the boundaries of land possession, until surveying became the legal means for doing so. "Mreg/mrog" produced Germanic "broki/broka," meaning "wetland, marshland," with Indo European "mr" becoming Germanic "br." Old Irish, a Celtic language, had "mruig," meaning "parcel of land, homestead," but later this became "bruig," which means it also changed to "br," or that it borrowed this form from Germanic. The Germanic form seemingly did not take hold in the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, but it did become a part of the West Germanic branch and it gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "broc," meaning "small stream" (perhaps from the notion of runoff from marshy lands producing steams; thus, "brooks''), but it also means "marshy land, wetland" in parts of southern England, which is right in line with the original meaning. This later became "brook." Relatives in the other West Germanic languages: German has "Bruch" (marshy land with trees and bushes), Low German has "Brook" (marshland, swampy ground), but there are variant forms in Low German, as Low German is not standardized, with "Bröcke" being another common form, Dutch has "broek" (marsh, swamp). Frisian is tough to research for many words, but I found "brôc" and "brouk," but I'm not certain if either word is still in use as a stand alone word.       

^ The history of the verb form "brook" is in the article at this link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/06/tyrolean-style-liver-tiroler-leber.html

^^ If "brook" does go back to "mreg/mrog," this would make it a distant relative of "mark," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "margin," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French, with likely reinforcement from Latin.   

Thai Salmon Salad with Peanut Sauce

A great salad with lots of nutrition and the peanut "saucy" flavor of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Well suited for lunch or a light meal. This salad is meant to have some heat from the chilies, but if you do not like heat, you can certainly replace the hot chilies with mild peppers, like some chopped red or green bell pepper. 

Ingredients (5 to 6 servings):

1 pound salmon in 2 or 3 fillets (can have skin, which will be removed after cooking)
1 tablespoon peanut oil for the fish
1/2 cup shredded or grated carrot
1 cup shredded cabbage
4 green onions, chopped with the green part
1 firm mango, peeled and chopped (not completely ripened)
2 chili peppers, sliced (serranos or jalapeños are good)
1/2 cup chopped fresh mixed greens, like spinach and kale
2 medium tomatoes, chopped (or 8 to 10 grape tomatoes, halved)
juice of 1 large lime
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds, lightly toasted, or finely chopped roasted peanuts
(optional) salt to taste (keep in mind, the dressing has salt from some ingredients)
lime wedges for serving

Dressing/Sauce:

1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled
1 hot chili pepper, stem and seeds removed  
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons honey
a little water

For the dressing/sauce: put all of the ingredients, except water, into a blender; blend together well. If the sauce is too thick, add a tablespoon of water and blend, continue to repeat this step until the desired consistency is reached. 
For the salmon: heat the peanut oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and fry the salmon on both sides until it is cooked through and is able to be flaked. Set aside to cool.
For the salad: in a large bowl, add the carrot, cabbage, green onions, mango, chili peppers, mixed greens and tomatoes; toss to mix. Squeeze the lime juice over the salad. Flake the salmon and toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet for about 1 minute (or chop some store bought roasted peanuts and heat them briefly in a dry skillet). Top each serving with some flaked salmon pieces and either some toasted sesame seeds or chopped peanuts. Drizzle some of the dressing over each salad and serve with a wedge or two of lime on the side.

WORD HISTORY:
Dwindle-This word is related to "dead," "death" and "die," all words from Germanic, with the verb "die" either coming to Old English as a borrowing from Old Norse, itself a Germanic language, or as an original English word and receiving emphasis and reinforcement from Old Norse to help it prevail as the primary word for "to lose one's life." "Dwindle" goes back to Indo European "dheu," which meant, "to die." This gave Old Germanic "dwinanan," meaning, "to lessen, to diminish, to waste away." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "dwinan," meaning, "to waste away, to fade away." This then became "dwinen" and then "dwine," with the "dwindle" form showing up in William Shakespeare's play "Henry IV, published in about 1598." Exactly why the suffix was added is a mystery to me. Shakespeare's use of "dwindle" certainly boosted overall usage of the word. Some relatives in other Germanic languages: Low German "verdwienen" (to disappear, to lessen), Dutch "verdwijnen" (to disappear), West Frisian "ferdwine" ("to disappear"), Icelandic "dvina" (to diminish, to lessen, to decrease). NOTES: 1) I have found "reference" to a Danish form "tvine," meaning "to pine away," but sources are few and sketchy, so I can't confirm it as a modern form. Old Norse, the forerunner of the modern North Germanic languages, had "dvina" (to diminish, to lessen). 2) I cannot find a form in German, including in Old High German, the ancestor of modern German, but that "might" be because the word did not come into extensive use before the dialects that became German pushed southward. Further, there was obviously no later borrowing of the word from Low German.