Hello,
Another culinary word to investigate this week – chopsticks. I came across a mention of William Dampier providing the first use of the word in English in his accounts of his travels in Vietnam in the 1690s. William (1651-1715) has quite the life story. Having browsed the details on his wikipedia profile I’m now keen to read a biography, so if anybody can suggest one, please leave the title in the comments. Apparently he was an explorer, privateer, navigator, pirate, and naturalist. He was the first person to circumnavigate the globe three times. He also rescued Alexander Selkirk (the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe).
A chopstick (or chop-stick) is a small stick of wood used in pairs when eating in China, Korea, Japan, and elsewhere. My favourite pair is pictured above, but we’ve several types and I often think they’ve a clever culinary tool considering how long it took eaters in the British Isles to adopt the fork, for example (you can read more about that here).
How did the word arrive into English? Apparently it was a partial translation, probably by sailors, of the Chinese term k’wai tse (fast ones or nimble boys). I love that translation – perfect for the quick motions of those who’ve eaten with chopsticks since childhood.
The first part – chop – is a pidgin English word which came from Cantonese kap (urgent). Think about the phrase chop-chop, meaning hurry up.
The second part – stick – comes from the Chinese word tsze which is a “individualising formative particle”. Now what that means is beyond me but I found some examples of tsze meaning son so I’m assuming this part refers to boy and hence we get chopstick meaning quick boy. Any Cantonese speaking readers know more? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Music-lovers will know of “Chopsticks” a waltz for the piano which is commonly taught to beginners. It’s nicknamed “Chopsticks” because your fingers resemble a pair of sticks when playing the melody with a quick chopping motion. The actual name of the piece is “The Celebrated Chop Waltz”. It was written in 1877 by a sixteen year old girl, Euphemia Allen and she created versions for solo players and for a duet. The music was published under the pen name Arthur de Lulli with help from her brother Mozart Allen who was a music publisher.
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)
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