"pastrami"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:17 AM -0400 6/27/99, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>---------------------------------------------
>PASTRAMI
>
>    David Shulman told me today that he found a "pastromi" citation from
>1927.  As everyone knows, "pastrami" is our greatest etymological mystery
>since the Reuben sandwich and the Caesar salad.

I suppose it might be  my own local folk etymology, but I've wondered about
the relation (if any) between pastrami and the Turkish dried meat delicacy
known as pastIrmI (back [i]).  Given the long Ottoman occupation of the
relevant parts of Eastern Europe, home of Romanian Jews and others, it's
not inconceivable (even if it's probably mistaken) to posit such a
relation...

Larry