surimi

[Beverly Flanigan]

Actually, I now have clarification on the word, and the product, from
Hiroyuki Oshita, my Japanese colleague (Geoff, you may remember him from
SIU).  Hiro says the product is  indeed imitation crab, and of Japanese
origin.  But the 'suri' is from [sur' u] = to grate (as with carrots), not
[sur u'] = 'to do'.  In the first case, the final syllable is hardly
pronounced.  And 'mi' is a native Japanese word, meaning 'flesh' or 'body',
not really 'meat' in our animal sense.  (But I'm reminded of German
'Fleisch', which has either narrowed or broadened in meaning?)

Beverly Flanigan
Ohio University

At 11:23 AM 6/17/2005, you wrote:
>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