Words Asia Gave Us | Wordfoolery

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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Hello,

You might be aware that a version of this blog is available on regional radio in Ireland once a month. The lovely Sinéad Brassil on LMFM Radio hosts me on Wordfoolery Wednesdays once a month to bring strange words and the stories behind them to the listeners. If you live outside of Ireland you can still listen online or catch the podcast later – some samples are available on my Listen page.

We’ve developed the habit of challenging listeners to guess the meaning of a Mystery Word as part of our session and in March 2022 the audience loved guessing about zarf so I thought I’d share it with you too. I gave three suggestions – an extreme sport, a cup-holder, and a beauty treatment but suggestions from callers included – a comic-book Batman exclamation, a TV alien, an extra toe, a child named by a celebrity, and the noise you make when you sneeze and fart at the same time. Yes, LMFM listeners are a witty bunch.

Sadly none of those meanings are correct but I love the inventiveness.

I found zarf in Susie Dent’s 2016 book “Dent’s Modern Tribes” which I read last year. I had been gathering words about specific occupations but it turns out she beat me to it. Zarf was my compensation for having to scrap that book idea. I love finding words like this where you instantly go “this is the word I didn’t even know I was seeking and yet will immediately add to my vocabulary”.

So what is a zarf? In modern life it’s the cardboard cup-holder wrapped around your takeaway coffee to prevent you burning your fingers. See what I mean? You never knew what that was called but you potentially use it often. Unfortunately as a non-coffee drinker I haven’t been able to get a zarf to use to illustrate today, please accept some other coffee paraphernalia as a substitute.

Zarf means envelope in Turkish and that’s where we get the word from – the zarf envelopes the cup. It’s a direct borrowing to English with a historic backstory.

In the 1500s, the Ottoman Empire banned alcohol and strong Turkish coffee became very popular, as did coffee houses. This worked well until the Sultan in the 17th century didn’t like the politics talked in the coffee houses and he outlawed them until the people revolted.

Under pressure, he re-opened them, but imposed a heavy coffee tax. Their drinks were served in glass or ceramic cups which were held in elaborate metal holders to prevent the drinkers from burning their hands. They were sometimes even encrusted with gems. These were called zarfs. You will sometimes still be served drinks such as mint tea in similar glass and metal vessels in Turkey, Morocco, and elsewhere.

Modern takeaway coffee zarfs are much simpler in design and were patented by an inventor called Jay Sorenson, in 1995. He may not have made them with silver and gems but apparently he makes eight million dollars a year from them. Nice work if you can get it.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)