So this isn't one of those words that you would think people wouldn't know, right? I mean everyone has heard of:
Butter -- a solid emulsion of fat globules, air, and water made by churning milk or cream and used as food.
Pretty simple right? The product itself has been around for what seems like forever and the word butter has been around since before the 12th century. It comes froom Middle English, from Old English butere, from Latin butyrum, from Greek boutyron, from bous cow + tyros cheese; akin to Avestan tūiri- curds.
No, that's not what struck me as interesting to bring it up as the word of the day today. That comes courtesy of an email I somehow get each day from "Interesting Facts". You can check them out here, it's a pretty cool site. Here's what was in my inbox today...
The ancient Romans thought eating butter was barbaric.
Our
friends in ancient Rome indulged in a lot of activities that we would
find unseemly today — including and especially gladiators fighting to
the death — but they drew the line at eating butter.
To do so was considered barbaric, with Pliny the Elder going so far as
to call butter “the choicest food among barbarian tribes.” In addition
to a general disdain for drinking too much milk, Romans took issue with
butter specifically because they used it for treating burns and thus
thought of it as a medicinal salve, not a food.
They weren’t alone in their contempt. The Greeks also
considered the dairy product uncivilized, and “butter eater” was among
the most cutting insults of the day. In both cases, this can be partly
explained by climate — butter didn’t keep as well in warm southern
climates as it did in northern Europe, where groups such as the Celts
gloried in their butter. Instead, the Greeks and Romans relied on olive oil, which served a similar purpose. To be fair, though, Romans considered anyone who lived beyond the Empire’s borders (read: most of the world) to be barbarians, so butter eaters were in good company.
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Who knew? Well apparently someone did. I must admit, I'm not a huge butter fan myself. Don't put it on bread, or on my potatoes, or corn, etc. It's good in dishes, good in recipes, but for just eating? I think I'll take a pass. But it definitely is one of those foods modern day could not survive without...
3 comments:
Very interesting fact and absolutely true.
I would like to add this episode reported by Plutarco. But It seems It Is Just a legend.
In 222 BC, the consuls Marcellus and Scipio conquered Insubria, present-day Lombardy, and from 59 to 55 BC. C. was Governor of Cisalpine Gaul Gaius Julius Caesar. As Plutarch tells in the "Life of Caesar" when the latter is proconsul in Milan he is invited to dinner by Valerio Leone, who has a dish of asparagus served not with the olive oil that the Roman diners were accustomed to, but with melted butter (olei loco infunderat unguentum). The Romans who accompanied Julius Caesar, embarrassed, refused to eat a food seasoned with butter, an ingredient they used as a cosmetic or medicine, but not Caesar who already knew him and who as an intelligent and shrewd man uttered the famous phrase " disputandum est ”(one cannot discuss personal tastes), making it clear that one does not object when one is hosted by someone.
The phrase Is actually "de gustibus non disputandum est".
Very cool! Thanks for sharing Mostro Joe!
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