SC - "paella" originally means 'pan'

[Thomas Gloning]

<< OK, to specifics. Some evidence suggests the word "paella" is derived
from Indo-European roots meaning, simply, "rice", but which have come to
refer as well to a cooking process common from India and southern Russia
through the Middle East and across North Africa -- (...) >>

I think the name of the dish is derived from the Catalan/ Valencian word
"paella" 'pan'.

French "paelle" ('pan, cooking vessel') is used in the Enseignements, in
the Menagier and the Viandier. More important: Catalan "paella" is used
in the Libre de Sent Sovi (also in the variant form "pella") and in the
Catalan version of De Nola in the sense 'pan'. In one of the Spanish De
Nola parallel recipes, I looked up, the Spanish word used instead of
Catalan "paella" is "sarten" 'pan'. A Catalan-German vocabulary printed
in 1502 has an entry "Pella Pfann" (Paella 'pan') in the chapter about
kitchen stuff.

Thus it seems to me that the name of the Spanish dish paella is derived
from the Catalan/ Valencian expression _paella_, _pella_, used to refer
to the pan in which the dish is made.

Thomas
(The next step would be to look up Corominas, the Diccionari Català,
Valencià, Balear, and others, but I don't have them here.)