lox (smoked salmon) from 1668??

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Locks" it is.  Who'da thunk it ?

  JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: lox (smoked salmon) from 1668??
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At 8:49 PM -0400 8/4/06, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>A disappointment. Clearly not a fresh lax, though--my mother told me
>that when fish had no odor, it was fresh.
>
>But looking in OED2 a little further, there is the same quote under
>"lox" (not n.1 or n.2, just plain, no schmear*):
>
>" ? obs. pl. of lock n.1 (see sense 2 note).
> 1668 Clevelands Old Gill ii. in J.C. Revived (ed. 4) 32 Her
>Breath smells like Lox."
>
>The sense 2 note is:
>
>"In pl. used by wool-dealers for: The lowest class of remnants after
>the removal of the fleece, consisting of the shortest wool, coming
>from the legs and belly of the sheep."

That gives "belly lox*" a whole new...fragrance.

LH

(*For outlanders, this is normally taken to refer
to salmon that has been salted but not smoked à
la "nova". I never realized it could be made from
the legs of the salmon, not just the belly. Or
is someone pulling the fleece over our eyes?)

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