beche-de-mer (n.)

sea-slug eaten as a delicacy in the Western Pacific, 1814, from French bêche-de-mer, literally "spade of the sea," a folk-etymology alteration of Portuguese bicho do mar "sea-slug," literally "worm of the sea."

also from 1814

Entries linking to beche-de-mer

*mori-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "body of water."

It forms all or part of: aquamarine; Armorica; beche-de-mer; cormorant; mare (n.2) "broad, dark areas of the moon;" marina; marinate; marine; mariner; maritime; marsh; mere (n.1) "lake, pool;" Merlin; mermaid; merman; meerschaum; meerkat; morass; Muriel; rosemary; submarine; ultramarine; Weimar.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin mare; Old Church Slavonic morje, Russian more, Lithuanian marės, Old Irish muir, Welsh mor "sea;" Old English mere "sea, ocean; lake, pool," German Meer "sea."

Trends of beche-de-mer

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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mere

bare, naked;" figuratively "true, real, genuine," according to some sources probably originally "clear, bright," from PIE *mer...But de Vaan writes "there is no compelling reason to derive 'pure' from 'shining,'" and compares Hittite marri "just so,...

dogfish

of the dog spread to the North to dominate the European image of the shark, from the Italian pescecane and French chien de...mer to the German Meerhund and Hundfisch and English sea dog and dogfish....

December

Perhaps, however, from *de-cem(o)-mr-is, i.e...."forming the tenth part or division," from *mer- ..., while October = *octuo-mr-is. [T.G....

admiral

Amiral de la mer "commander of a fleet of ships" is in late 13c. Anglo-French documents....

morn

Dutch morghen, Dutch morgen, Old High German morgan, German Morgen, Gothic maurgins), from PIE *merk-, perhaps from root *mer...

murk

Church Slavonic mraku, Serbo-Croatian mrak, Russian mrak "darkness;" Lithuanian merkti "shut the eyes, blink," from PIE *mer...

gamin

Un groupe d'enfants, de ces petits sauvages vanu-pieds qui ont de tout temps battu le pavé de Paris sous le nom éternel de...gamins, et qui, lorsque nous étions enfants aussi, nous ont jeté des pierres à tous, le soir, au sortir de classe, parce...[Hugo, "Notre-Dame de Paris"]...

mar

Middle English merren "to deface, disfigure; impair in form or substance" (early 13c.), from Old English merran (Anglian), mierran (West Saxon) "to waste, spoil," from Proto-Germanic *marzjan (source also of Old Frisian meria, Old High German marren "to hinder, obstruct," Gothic

blurb

used by U.S. scholar Brander Matthews in 1906 in "American Character;" popularized 1907 by U.S. humorist Frank Gelett Burgess. Originally mocking excessive praise printed on book jackets, and probably derisively imitative. Gelett Burgess ... then entertained the guests with some

medicine

c. 1200, "medical treatment, cure, healing," also (early 14c.) "substance used in treatment of a disease, medicinal potion or plaster," also used figuratively of spiritual remedies, from Old French medecine (Modern French médicine) "medicine, art of healing, cure, treatment, poti

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updated on October 06, 2022

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