SC - "paella" originally means 'pan'

[Philip & Susan Troy]

"Decker, Terry D." wrote:
> 
> Look at the Latin.  Patina means plate or pan.  Patella is the diminutive of
> patina.  From which Old French gets paella for frying pan or pot.  Catlan
> presumably takes the term from Old French.
> 
> Since patella is a term for kneecap and kneecaps resemble paella pans, I get
> the feeling we have some wordplay going on.
> 
> I'm no expert, but I would tend to discount derivation from the Arabic
> because of the consonant termination of the Persian pilaw and the Turkish
> pilav.

This makes sense. We just need to determine which reasonably good
argument is the correct one, and bear in mind that not all the
pilaff-related terms have consonant terminators. I'm perfectly prepared
to see the logic behind the pan theory, it's just that we haven't fully
discounted the other theory, which probably gets points for longevity,
if nothing else.
  
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com