Thursday, August 28, 2008

Pumpernickel


The boys each made their own mini-loaf of pumpernickel bread this week. They were curious about pumpernickel after watching an episode of Sesame Street where Rachael Ray talks about how she loves to say pumpernickel and how good it is. The boys enjoyed making the bread, but we discovered that we DO NOT like pumpernickel. At least not the recipe we tried. The boys decided Rachael Ray must have been telling a joke when she said it was good.

After making the bread I learned more about it. Following please read an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The Philologist Johann Christoph Adelung states about the Germanic origin of the word, in the vernacular, Pumpen was a New High German synonym for being flatulent, a word similar in meaning to the English "fart", and "Nickel" was a form of the name Nicholas, an appellation commonly associated with a goblin or devil (e.g., "Old Nick", a familiar name for Satan). Hence, pumpernickel is described as the "devil's fart", a definition accepted by the Stopes International Language Database,[2] the publisher Random House,[3] and by some English language dictionaries, including Webster's Dictionary.[4] The American Heritage Dictionary adds "so named from being hard to digest."
  • I really don't like the word that they used to describe the word flatulent in English, but felt I had to keep it in there in order for the excerpt to make the most sense.

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