Poor Boys

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Mar 21 23:36:48 UTC 2000


To repeat and, I hope, clarify my claims:
(1) our NYC hero sandwiches predated gyro sandwiches in that location by
decades.
(2) the former differ(ed) from muffalettas in NOT containing green olives
or pimentos.  THey were as described below, with crunchy peppers and
onions.  I loved heros (note the spelling of the plural reflects the
standard usage of the time, if I'm not mistaken, falsifing the claim
embodied in the movie title "A Hero Ain't Nothin But a Sandwich") but I
wouldn't have even liked them if they contained green olives.  The subs
I've had in Connecticut and Massachusetts are related but not identical to
the New York heros of yore.  The meats on a hero may have been similar to
those on a muffaletta, which I've never tried but plan to the next time we
meet in New Orleans (Jan. 2002?), at which point I'll be happy to report
back.
(3) I see no problem in principle deriving "hero" from "gyro" on phonetic
grounds alone, the latter being pronounced with an initial [y] or voiceless
palatal fricative, but the chronological and referential evidence renders
any such derivation extremely implausible.

larry

Anne Lambert writes:
>I doubt very much if "hero" can be derived from "gyro." We don't have that
>kind of phonetic process in English.
>Muffuletta is as described--chopped green olives, pimentos, etc.
>I know very little about the hero you describe, or really about any hero.  I
>always assumed it was just a variant term for the submarine.  Maybe I'm wrong
>and it's a different sandwich.
>
>Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>> James Smith writes:
>> >I've assumed (I know, never safe) that "hero" was
>> >derivative of Greek "gyro".
>> >
>> I wonder.  They're phonetically similar, but ethnically and culinarily
>> distinct.  Especially the latter; if the gyros sandwiches I've had in Greek
>> joints around the country since the mid-70's (large pita-like bread stuffed
>> with shaved lamb or beef from a rotating spit--whence the name--garnished
>> with tomatoes, cucumber, and a tasty cucumber-yogurt-type sauce, with hot
>> sauce optional) are indicative, there's very little relation to the hero
>> sandwiches I grew up on in both New York City and Maine in the 50's
>> (Italian bread seasoned with olive oil and stuffed with various Italian
>> cold cuts--genoa salami being the true essential, but joined by its
>> cousins--and cheese (usually provolone), as well as diced peppers, onions,
>> and crushed red pepper.  Besides being good for lunch, there's not much in
>> common between the two.  I'd never come across the "gyro" in New York in
>> the 50's or 60's, and we were always told the hero was so-called because
>> you had to be one to eat it all.  Of course, that COULD be a folk
>> etymology, but if so I have no idea what the true one is.
>>
>> larry



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