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Friday, July 23, 2010

Of Mosquitoes and Melba toast

A summer evening... a glass of wine … some canapés to snack on... Little do you suspect that those appetizers have something to do with the very same mosquitoes you're swatting. In Greek, a couch with mosquito netting was a konopeion (from konops, a gnat or mosquito). Focusing on the netting, we English derived the word “canopy” for a suspended piece of fabric. But the French focused on the couch itself, so their word canapé means “sofa”. Someone saw a resemblance between a person reclining on a couch and a shrimp perched on Melba toast, and thus hors d'oeuvres became “canapés”.

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4 comments:

  1. JMAJuly 30, 2010 at 6:19 PM

    Fascinating! I have often wondered about the word "canapés." How did the French come up with "hors d'oeuvres"?

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  2. Katherine BarberAugust 1, 2010 at 12:46 PM

    "Hors d'oeuvre" means literally in French "outside of the work". Making appetizers was considered outside of the ordinary work of a chef. For this reason, the plural in French is the same as the singular, un hors d'oeuvre, des hors d'oeuvre.

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  3. MafaldaJanuary 26, 2011 at 6:18 AM

    In French "la canopée" is "l'étage supérieur de la forêt" the high vegetation which is directly in contact with air (it reminded me of your "suspended piece of fabric")

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  4. Katherine BarberJanuary 26, 2011 at 6:50 AM

    Hello Mafalda,
    The word "canopy" has the same "treetops" sense in English.
    Katherine

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