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Monday, November 14, 2005
One Thing About PortugalYou learn new words. I brought home an odd plastic box of thick, sweet "marmelada," which you might think would come in different flavors for spreading on your morning toast -- peach marmelada, apricot marmelada -- I wasn't quite sure what flavor mine was -- but you'd be dead wrong, because in Portugal there's no marmelada without polpa de marmelo, or quince pulp.
I got quince jam.
The confusion is the work of centuries. In English:
mar • ma • lade > Pg. marmelada, quince conserve > marmelo, quince > L. melimelum, a kind of sweet apple > Gk. melimelon > meli, honey + melon, apple -- more at MELLIFLUOUS
posted by Michael Scott Moore |
10:07 PM
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