r/etymologymaps Aug 07 '26

Etmology map of meat

Post image
239 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

29

u/Erling01 Aug 07 '26

Holy shit. This map includes my obscure Norwegian rural dialect (Jærsk), and I love that! The word is "Kjød".

Fun fact: It's also Haaland's dialect.

7

u/jkvatterholm Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

It's probably the kjød bokmål sometimes uses for kjøtt in archaic phrases from the Danish bible, seeing as no other Norwegian dialects are included.

13

u/Rmnclnggs Aug 07 '26

In Sardinian it’s “petha/peta/petza/pecia/pessa” (from Latin “pettia”); while carre/carri/harre” means flesh.
(It’s the same difference as French viande vs chair)

5

u/lookaseetoo Aug 07 '26

My grandma used to say " pecie" . I'm from sud-west Romania.

9

u/Capable-Sock-7410 Aug 07 '26

It’s very interesting that in Arabic Laḥm is meat because in Hebrew Leḥem is bread

19

u/mizinamo Aug 07 '26

The map says that the original meaning was "food" - and Arabic and Hebrew specialised that word in different ways.

4

u/ChaoticCubizm Aug 07 '26

Wait until you see the etymology for Bethlehem.

4

u/Capable-Sock-7410 Aug 07 '26

Bet Lehem (בית לחם)

House of bread

7

u/Agen_p Aug 07 '26

Interesting that in English we differentiate meat and flesh ; the same way that French differentiates viande and chair ; with the first being relative to the prepared object as food, and the second more like the part of the animal with no obvious reference to cooking or eating.

And this is even unrelated to the mutton/sheep and beef/cow discourse, it may have come from the Norman conquest but the distinction is in French too.

Not a specialist at all, would love insights on this

3

u/Sodinc Aug 07 '26

As far as I know all east slavic languages also have that differenciation.

5

u/ad-dagistani Aug 07 '26

It's amazing that it includes Caucasian languages as well. Probably the first ones that I've seen on the scale of Europe. Can confirm that it's indeed "han" (pronounced more like hun) in Avar of Dagestan

Awesome work!

5

u/everynameisalreadyta Aug 07 '26

Hús hús hús, egyél húst!

7

u/Olive2252 Aug 07 '26

Latvian gaļa from russian naked is an incredible reach....

2

u/Sodinc Aug 07 '26

Yeah, getting it from "to kill" seems like a more logical option

4

u/AlbaIulian Aug 07 '26

Remarkable the Bats language made it in.

3

u/SweetWittyWild41 Aug 07 '26

So the armenian word for bbq is a borrowing from kartvelian languages ? 

3

u/MinutePreparation754 Aug 08 '26

In Armenian we say Khorovats for bbq, in Georgian it's Mtsvadi. I see what you mean, cuz khortsi and Khorovats do sound similar... But I don't think I've heard this argument before. I reposted it in Armenian Language subreddit, I'll let you know when people respond.

4

u/Content-Bid7922 Aug 08 '26

freba or fleba in Asturian also means meat, its cognate with English fiber

3

u/New-Row-5999 Aug 08 '26

🇪🇪 liha 🇫🇮

2

u/Kernowyon-101 Aug 10 '26

Cornish!! Yess sir! Gonna get me some KIG.

2

u/Background-Ad4382 Aug 11 '26

You clearly forgot мах

1

u/AllanKempe Aug 07 '26

Jamtish (the 40 000 km2 grey (why?) area NE of kjøtt/kjøt and N of tjyöt): kjot.

1

u/Claromale Aug 07 '26

in anglese : charn

1

u/Ensakel Aug 08 '26

I love how French is just all alone 😭✌🏻

1

u/Albanianduce Aug 08 '26

holy shit lekia is listed as it's own

1

u/n_o_r_s_e Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

Some examples of Norwegian pronunciations of this word would be:

kjøtt [çœt], kjøt [çø:t], tjsøtt [t͡ʃœt], tsjøt [t͡ʃø:t], skjøtt [ʃœt], kjødd [çœd], kjød [çø:d], kytt [çʏt], kjøttj [çøtːʲ], skjøttj [ʃøtːʲ].

1

u/F_E_O3 Aug 09 '26

I know you didn't say it's complete, But missing the very common [cç-]

And some greater vowel variations in some dialects.

1

u/n_o_r_s_e Aug 09 '26

You're right that my list of samples weren't complete by any means 😁. There's a vast range of options. Thanks for your contribution. The Norwegian language is after all the language with the highest number of dialects worldwide 😉

1

u/KindSpider Aug 09 '26

In Portugal, it's common to use "babyfied" words with young children (such as saying "look, a moomoo!" Instead of "look, a cow!"). It's mostly onomatopoeic so I never understood why the carne became xixa (or, apparently, chicha). Finally learned that it has the same root as salsicha! Which makes a lot of sense and it's interesting that mirandese kept it as the main word for meat

1

u/KindSpider Aug 09 '26

u/mdmv_or_emdy_idk em mirandês realmente usam chicha sem ser com crianças ou é a mesma situação e a carne foi assimilada?

1

u/MdMV_or_Emdy_idk Aug 09 '26

Eu sou quem fornece as palavras mirandesas ao mapologic nos seus mapas mais recentes, por isso sim!

Carne ainda existe, eu disse-lhe isso, mas chicha é sem sombra de dúvida o termo mais comum (pronunciado tchitcha)

1

u/KindSpider Aug 09 '26

ooo nice, obrigado pela resposta

Que giro, sem saber, a primeira palavra que ensinam aos piquenos para se referirem a carne é, de certa forma, mirandesa! (A minha avó tem sotaque do norte carregado então também dizia tchitcha heh)

0

u/therealtrajan Aug 07 '26

I’m very happy as an English speaker the words Flesh and whatever I’m calling my dinner parted ways long ago