Edible tales

SOME of the words for foods have a story to tell. When the morning cereals is eaten, a small tribute is paid to an ancient goddess. In 469 BC, the Roman countryside was hit by a terrible drought. The priests turned to the oracle for advice. As a result of this divine consultation, the priests reported that a new goddess, Ceres, must be worshipped and sacrifices must be made to her immediately so that she would bring rain to the land. Once the crisis was over, Ceres became the protector of the crops. To ensure a good harvest, the first cuttings of the corn were always offered to her, quite like the prasad in our temples. The grain markets fell within her domain and the Latin adjective cerealis, meaning ‘of Ceres’ gave us the word cereal.

Coffee too carries a tale. In the year 850 AD, a goatherd named Kaldi became puzzled at the strange behavior of his flock. He noticed that they were nibbling on certain berries, so he tried them himself. The rush of exhilaration that overcame him made him rush off to tell his village people. The wonderful discovery reached the ears of the Arabs who got the idea of drying the berries before boiling them in water. They called the brew qahwe. Its use immediately stirred up Islamic society when people began to take it in order to remain awake during interminable religious services. Was it an intoxicant or not? Anyway, the beverage was here to stay and with widespread usage, from the Old English chaoua, cauwa, kahue and cahve to our coffee was but a small step. While the Old English names for coffee are definitely based upon the Arabic qahwa, this word may have been based on Kaffa, an area in Abyssinia from where the coffee berries originated.

The Greek philosopher Epicurus taught moderation in all things. Pleasure, he said, was the highest good, but the price of every joy is a certain quota of pain; so moderation is the answer. When the English language took over the word epicurean, the single idea of pleasure as the highest good caught the fancy without taking into account the moderation aspect of his philosophy. Today, the words epicure and Epicurean have the eat, drink and be merry flavour that Epicurus and his followers so deplored.

Tap-root

In Hindi, a panch is a member of the panchayat, a group of people who have the authority to intermediate in any dispute. The original word in Sanskrit was panchayatan which meant ‘a cluster of the idols of any five Gods’. The transfer to the group of five people can be understood in terms of the importance and sanctity of this body in a village, a connotation that continues even after the members are no more five in number.

— Deepti