Best Thread Joke of the day

[Phylo]

A non-partisan research post - London
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Never forget the past
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[Phylo]

A non-partisan research post - London
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Never forget the past
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[Phylo]

A non-partisan research post - London
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Never forget the past
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[Phylo]

A non-partisan research post - London
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Never forget the past
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[Phylo]

A non-partisan research post - London
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Never forget the past
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[Phylo]

A non-partisan research post - London
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Never forget the past
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[Phylo]

 

[Phylo]

 

[Phylo]

 

[Phylo]

 

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[Phylo]

 

[Phylo]

The word marmalade does not come from Mary, Queen of Scots or the French phrase “Marie est malade” (“Mary is ill”). That’s a persistent folk etymology, but linguists and historians agree it’s a myth.[wordhistories]

True origin of “marmalade”​

The real etymology traces back through several languages:

• English marmalade ← Middle French marmelade
• ← Portuguese marmelada (“quince jelly/jam”)
• ← marmelo (“quince”)
• ← Latin melimēlum (“sweet apple”, a fruit from an apple tree grafted onto quince)
• ← Ancient Greek melímēlon (μέλι méli “honey” + μῆλον mêlon “apple”)[en.wikipedia]

So the word originally meant a quince preserve, not an orange one. Oranges only became the standard fruit much later (from the 17th century onward), but the name stuck.[study]

The Mary, Queen of Scots story​

The popular tale goes like this:

• Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–1587), fell ill (sometimes said to be seasickness or tuberculosis).
• Her French-speaking attendants or a cook made her a sweet orange preserve.
• They supposedly called it “Marie est malade” (“Mary is ill”), which over time became marmalade.[wordhistories]

Problems with this story:

• The word marmalade is recorded in English decades before Mary was born. The Oxford English Dictionary cites it in a 1480 letter, referring to a gift of “oranges and marmalade”.[wordhistories]
• At that time, marmalade was primarily a quince product imported from Portugal/Spain, not an orange concoction linked to Mary.[worldwidewords]
• The phrase “Marie est malade” as an origin is explicitly labelled a false folk etymology by etymological sources.[en.wiktionary]

So while it’s a charming story, there’s no linguistic or historical evidence that Mary, Queen of Scots (with or without tuberculosis) gave her name to marmalade. The word’s origin is firmly rooted in the Portuguese term for quince.[wordhistories]