Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Viand

Viand \VAHY-uhnd\ , noun;
1. An article of food, now usually of a choice or delicate kind

Booo-ring, viand is obviously connected to French viande, which means "meat." We Americans tend to think that French things are fancy, and 'meat' is a pretty general word in the world of food, so French meat = fancy food.

According to Etymonline.com:
The word dates from the 14th century and comes from an Anglo-French word viaunde, which derives from the Old French world viande, meaning "food". Viande dissimilated from 'vulgar Latin' vivanda, which comes from vivenda, meaning "things for living" in Late Latin and "be live" in classical Latin.

*Today's word and the first definition were both taken from Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' for Tuesday, October 19

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