Napoleans etymological impact - was Genitalia

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:51 AM -0700 9/29/00, Kim & Rima McKinzey wrote:
>>This reminds me a bit of the case of "vasistas", the French word for
>>transom, which is generally assumed to have come about through
>>someone mistaking the illocutionary point of "Was ist das?"
>>
>>-- supposedly Napolean
>
>And the supposed etymology of Pumpernickel:  The story I heard was
>that Napolean was given some of this bread - and he hated it.  He
>said it was only good for his horse, named Nicole - thus, bon pour
>Nicole...
>
>Rima

In the version I've heard, it was "pain pour Nicole", which sounds a
bit more like "pumpernickel" with a French accent (not that it has
much else to recommend it).  By the way, the first paragraph above
was mine, but the coda wasn't, or I'd have spelled it "NapoleOn" ;-)

larry