[Sca-cooks] Gyro? Hero?

[grizly at mindspring.com]

I looked at an online dictionary at

http://www.yourdictionary.com/cgi-bin/mw.cgi

That provides the following for a definition of Submarine:

Main Entry: 2submarine
Function: noun
Date: 1703

1 : something that functions or operates underwater; specifically : a naval vessel designed to operate underwater
2 : a large sandwich on a long split roll with any of a variety of fillings (as meatballs or cold cuts, cheese, lettuce, and tomato) -- called also grinder, hero, hoagie, Italian sandwich, poor boy, sub, torpedo

No idea of the date validity, but there it is.  It synonimizes several sandwich names, but leaves off Gyros.  See following:

Main Entry: 2gy.ro
Pronunciation: 'yE-"rO, 'zhir-O
Function: noun
Etymology: New Greek gyros turn, from Greek; from the rotation of the
meat on a spit
Date: 1971
Inflected Form(s): plural gyros: a sandwich especially of lamb and beef, tomato, and onion on pita bread

Much later by their dating, and relates to Greek definition.

interesting research.

niccolo difrancesco


sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> I just got an email from my compatriotin the kitchen, Baroness Alys, who
had a random thought. She realized that
a gyro is pronounced "Yee-roh". She
also knows that a submarine sandwich
is referred to as a "hero" in that
area.

She feels, and with a good argument,
that it may be named be that a long
sandwich with meats as a "Yee-roh"
and then Americanized to "Hero".

Or it could simply be coincidence and
the sandwich was so named because it
was of "heroic" proportions.

Yeah, I'm ready to go home from work
today.

Gunthar