[Sca-cooks] Kippers and Toad-in-the-hole
Darren Gasser
kaos at earthlink.net
Thu May 15 11:31:44 PDT 2003
johnna holloway wrote:
> What source note is American Heritage giving for their entry?
> Were they really copper-colored during spawning or are they
> copper-colored after being prepared by drying and salting?
They don't give a source, unfortunately. They, Merriam-Webster, and
etymonline.com all connect the use of 'cypera' to 'cyperen' to 'coper,' and
attribute this to the fishes' color in spawning season, but don't give a
source for this connection.
To confuse it further, Walter Skeat says cypera derives from the Old English
'kippian,' ("to spawn"). I'll have to see if he has a source.
Silly Anglo-Saxons, always with the confused etymology. Sigh.
-Lorenz
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