"pastrami"

[Robert Kelly]

toss in Armenian basterma -- (and Arm. usually seems to voice stops which
are unvoiced elsewhere, e.g. Bedros for Greek Petros) -- arguing perhaps
an older word.  I'd guess Anatolia a good home for the word, either from T
or Arm...

RK

On Sun, 27 Jun 1999, Laurence Horn wrote:

> 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
>