ADS-L Digest - 15 Jun 2005 to 16 Jun 2005 (#2005-168)

[Geoff Nathan]

At 12:01 AM 6/17/2005, you wrote:
>Well, at least the avocado in California rolls is still real.  The
>"crabmeat" is usually imitation, though (crab-colored pollock or
>whatever).  American ingenuity!

Sorry, Larry, but in this case it's Japanese ingenuity, since the
"crabmeat" is a Japanese invention, called surimi, a compound of /suru/
'do, process' and /mi/ 'meat' (I'm not sure whether this is a borrowing of
English 'meat' or a native Japanese word, and don't have a proper Japanese
dictionary available).  I believe the Japanese had been using this stuff
for a while before it made its way to American shores.

Geoff
Geoffrey S. Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu>
Faculty Liaison, Computing and Information Technology,
         and Associate Professor of English
Linguistics Program                     Phone Numbers
Department of English                   Computing and Information
Technology:  (313) 577-1259
Wayne State University                  Linguistics (English):  (313) 577-8621
Detroit, MI, 48202                      C&IT Fax: (313) 577-1338