[Sca-cooks] A Question of Spit Roasting....

[Darren Gasser]

Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
> Also sprach Daniel Myers:
>> On Monday, April 7, 2003, at 01:43 PM, Darren Gasser wrote:
>>
>> Interesting.  I'd heard though that the term "barbecue" came from the
>> French phrase "barbe au cul", which translates as ... um ... "arrow
>> in the backside".
>
> Wouldn't that be "fleche au cul"? "Barbe" has referred, in French, to
> a beard for a long time.

Dave Wilton says this version of the etymology is spurious.  From
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorb.htm

"Barbecue has one false etymology that is commonly promulgated on the
Internet and elsewhere. It is claimed that it comes from the French barbe
(beard) and queue (tail); the idea being that an entire pig is roasted, from
head, or beard, to tail. This is simply not true."

-Lorenz