Fleisch hammer

[James C Stalker]

When we lived in Turkey, there were lots of German products. One, which we
bought, was a fleish hammer,a meat tenderizer.  It was more like an American
hatchet.  One side was a narrow blade,like a dull hatchet blade, the other
was a dimpled square, like many such meat tenderizers in the US.  My son, 13
at the time, was totally intriqued by the name.  We still have it, it does
work well, and he still finds the name intriguing.

Jim

Beverly Flanigan writes:

> 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
>



James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University