Sri Lanka Handbook (2000); Fire and Spice (1989)

[Laurence Horn]

Barry provides:

>FIRE AND SPICE:
>THE CUISINE OF SRI LANKA
>by Heather Jansz Balasuriya and Karin Winegar
>New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
>1989
>
>
>Pg. 23:
>_cutlets_--From the Sinhalese _cutlis_.  THese patties of seasoned meat or
>seafood, finely chopped vegetables, and mashed potato are really what
>Westerners call "croquettes."  Sri Lankan cutlets are formed into balls or
>patties and are usually dipped into beaten egg, and then breaded and fried.
>They are served either as appetizers or as main courses.

another folk etymology, it appears, although it's not clear whether
the authors are claiming that the English word derives from the
Sinhalese or vice versa.  In any case, as the OED implies, the
English word is itself a folk-etymologized version [= 'little cut-off
thingie'] of the French source:

[OED] <Fr. côtelette (formerly costelette, whence 18th c. Eng. form),
double dim. of coste, côte (dim. costele) rib. The mod.Eng. spelling
suggests that it is a dim. of _cut_.]

[AHD] ETYMOLOGY:
  French côtelette, from Old French costelette, diminutive of coste,
rib, from Latin _costa_.

larry
--