J. Green food-slang dictionary

[Jesse Sheidlower]

For Barry.



>From http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_441737.html?menu=


Food slang dictionary launched


A dictionary of food slang reveals the meaning of hen fruit, nudgers and the
apple-blossom two-step.

Written by Jonathan Green, it covers 9,000 slang terms, from
Shakespeare's day to the latest rap songs.

It explains just how terms like 'save my bacon' and 'shut your cakehole'
came about.

The book also reveals which foods most commonly crop up in speech.

Chicken is the most popular, with 97 poultry-related entries in the book.
Bread and tea are next with 77 entries each.

'Duck' as a term of endearment dates back 500 years to A Midsummer
Night's Dream.

But there are also new terms emerging all the time. Cream, which means
money, comes from the acronym 'cash rules everything around me'.
'Beans' or 'killer beans' are expressions of approval.

Scousers call a sandwich a nudger and 'hen fruit' are eggs. The
apple-blossom two-step is a polite term for the runs.

Mr Green, who was working on behalf of Batchelor's Supernoodles, said:
"Slang has its roots in making comparisons, or subverting the meaning of
innocent words.

"I estimate there are at least 90,000 slang words and phrases in use, of
which around 9,000 relate to food and drink. But this is the first attempt to
study and catalogue the use of food terms in everyday language."