"Artisanal gefilte fish." ...

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu May 29 20:10:41 UTC 2014


Oops, what was I thinking?  A quadruped??!

Joel

At 5/28/2014 08:09 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>Lary, try sable, n.1.:
>
>1. a. A small carnivorous quadruped, Mustela
>zibellina, nearly allied to the martens, and
>native of the arctic and sub-arctic regions of
>Europe and Asia. Also Russian sable, Siberian
>sable. In Middle English the animal and its fur
>are called also martrix sable, martryn sable, after Old French martre sable.
>      The American sable, Mustela Americana,
>native of the arctic and sub-arctic regions of
>North America, is now regarded as a geographical
>variety of the Old World species. The red or
>Tatar sable is the Siberian mink, Putorius sibiricus.
>1423   Kingis Quair clvii,   The bugill, draware
>by his hornis grete; The martrik sable, the foyn?ee, and mony mo.
>[etc.]
>
>Perhaps smoked Russian sable is what the Jews of
>Eastern Europe ate -- transportable from the
>Arctic after smoking, and inexpensive, like the
>cheap (in two senses) smoked cod sent from New
>England to the Portuguese fishermen -- a taste
>brought to America in the great migrations of the turn of the 20th century.
>
>Joel
>
>
>At 5/28/2014 07:55 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>On May 28, 2014, at 6:18 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>
>> > ... an oxymoron?
>> >
>> > The Subject line (without the ellipsis) is the first sentence of the
>> > article "Everything New is Old Again / Jewish-American deli food is
>> > suddenly the rage, as younger cooks mix tradition and reinvention",
>> > by Julia Moskin, NYTimes, May 28, D1/1.
>> >
>> > On the other hand, I am gratified to see the illustration with its
>> > revival of sable and whitefish, plus two preparations of salmon --
>> > all favorites of my aunt in 1950s Manhattan.
>> >
>>Sable was always my favorite, but we used to
>>call it "chicken carp" in my family.  Not in the
>>OED, and I'm not sure if the sable(fish) listed
>>there is what Joel and I remember.  (At least I
>>never thought of it as being an Indian fish, but
>>the entry doesn't mention smoked
>>versions.)  Anyone else know from chicken carp, artisanal or otherwise?
>>
>>LH
>>===========
>>SABLE, n.4
>>An Indian fish; = hilsa n.   Usually sable-fish.
>>
>>1810   T. Williamson E. India Vade-mecum II.
>>154   The hilsah, (or sable fish,) which seems
>>to be mid-way between a mackarel and a
>>salmon,..is, perhaps, the richest fish with which any cook is acquainted.
>>1846   J. T. Thompson Dict. Hindee & Eng.,   Iléesh..the Hilsa or Sable.
>>1883   F. Day Indian Fish 34   An anadromous
>>shad termed ‘Pulla’ in the Indus,..‘Sable-fish’
>>by the Madrassees,..[and] ‘Hilsa’ or ‘ilisha’ in Bengal.
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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