Saturday, May 15, 2010

Just Beat It! - Etymology Notes

I just LOVE knowing the history of a word and it's meaning - gives you real power over the word and how to use it.

So about a month ago (where the heck did that month go?) I posted about an experiment with using non-fine-metal foils. In that, I speculated on the origin of "schlag" - which refers to thin metal foil for gilding, and the use of "schlag" to refer to adding whipped cream to a dessert (much like a la mode for adding ice cream) - in that both are gussying up the original product.

However, the reality is somewhat more prosaic. I got a lovely email from a fellow beadmaker in Germany who also has a penchant for testing. She says, in part

"Schlagen" is a verb, it just means "to beat". If you beat cream you get whipped cream, if you beat metal you get leaf metal. So the word "Schlagmetall" is just the german word for leaf metal. Sorry, no whipped cream at all.
So - not nearly as poetic, but still lots of fun. And if you also love word origins, I highly recommend A Way with Words podcast. Wordy bursts of etymological goodness!

1 comment:

  1. Excellent! I am strangely glad to know that metal leaf has nothing to do with whipped cream except the name. They do use gold leaf to decorate desserts sometimes, which might include whipped cream...