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BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "I'm actually a neuroscience researcher at the University of North Carolina, which is in Chapel Hill. I have an amateur's interest, though, in linguistics and folklore and history."

AA: "So here's a question we got by e-mail. It says, 'I've been living in the United States for almost twenty-nine years. Why do people call the day after Thanksgiving Day "Black Friday"?' And I understand you've done a little research into this."

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "I should back up just for a second, though, and explain that he's in good company, because a lot of Americans were unfamiliar with the term Black Friday until about a decade ago. Its more modern application is in regard to profitability for the day. So a lot of people think that the black in Black Friday refers to ledger books going from negative values, which would be in the red, into positive values, which is into the black."

AA: "Which refers to the color of the ink that was used."

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "Exactly right. And that's absolutely true and it's a perfectly valid explanation, though it may not be historically correct. Some research I did sort of indicates that this term probably originated in the late fifties, early sixties, and it was probably used as a term, sort of a pejorative term, a sort of tongue-in-cheek term to refer to the day after Thanksgiving. And this is in Philadelphia, by the way -- "

AA: "In the state of Pennsylvania."

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "Exactly, as a day of sort of disaster and woe, where downtown Philadelphia was completely swamped with holiday shoppers. And we think that the police department, members of the police force sort of had this as a slang description for that day, because they were going to be faced with huge traffic woes and probably snarling customers on sidewalks. It was just going to be a real headache for police and probably for transit workers like cab drivers and bus drivers as well."

AA: "So it wasn't the storekeepers, then, who were using that term?"

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "My hunch is that storekeepers had heard that a lot of people were using this term jokingly to talk about that day, and my feeling is that they may have been a little afraid that this would keep shoppers from downtown Philadelphia.

"So I sense an effort on the part of retailers to try to convince the public that the black actually referred to a very bright day of sales for merchants. And therefore we get back to the old accounting practice of going from the red to the black."

AA: "How convenient."

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "Yes, but the problem with that theory is, first of all, it's clear that that explanation for the meaning of Black Friday comes well after -- by about fifteen years -- the earliest citing we have for police using Black Friday with reference to the day. Another problem is, a huge financial disaster that took place in American history -- I think it was eighteen sixty-nine -- where there was a complete destruction of the gold market, and that is referred to as Black Friday.

"So why would merchants sort of gleefully adopt, out of the blue, this expression Black Friday when it actually has a bigger, larger meaning in American economic history as a complete failure of the economy."

AA: "Well, you know now there's another myth associated with Black Friday, and do you know what I'm talking about?"

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "That it's the most profitable shopping day of the year?"

AA: "That's right."

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "Unfortunately I don't really know all the data on that, but I do know that David and Barbara Mikkelson of snopes.com have looked at that very intensely and they've pretty much debunked that one. It's certainly a very profitable day, but it's not -- it probably on the top five."

AA: "Are you on the trail of any other terms?"

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "Oh, a phrase that is really puzzling to linguists, even amateur linguists like me, is the origin of 'the whole nine yards.'"

AA: "Aha."

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "For example, if you're getting ready to go on a trip and you're packing your suitcase, you have a list of items and you want to make sure that you include 'the whole nine yards,' what you would ever possibly need on that trip."

AA: "What are going to be doing on Thanksgiving?"

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "We're going to my sister's house in Cary, North Carolina, and having a traditional dinner there."

AA: "A big turkey and all?"

BONNIE TAYLOR-BLAKE: "Yep, the whole nine yards."

AA: Bonnie Taylor-Blake is an amateur linguist when she's not working as a neuroscientist at the University of North Carolina. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. I'm Avi Arditti.

 

 

Today we talk about animals--and animals we eat. In English, these two categories often have different names. Pigs turn into pork. Cows turn into beef. Sheep is mutton. Calves are veal. And deer is venison. 

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But why do we call these animals different names when we prepare them for a meal? Why is it "pig" on the farm but "pork" in a sandwich?

The answer is the Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066. That is when many French words became part of the English language. Many of those French words related to the battlefield, such as "army" and "royal." Many related to government and taxation.

And many others related to food.

When animals were in the stable or on the farm, they kept their Old English names: pig, cow, sheep and calf. But when they were cooked and brought to the table, an English version of the French word was used: pork (porc), beef (beouf), mutton (mouton) and veal (veau).

On several websites, word experts claim that this change shows a class difference between the Anglo-Saxons and the French in Britain at the time of the conquest.

Because the lower-class Anglo-Saxons were the hunters, they used the Old English names for animals. But the upper-class French saw these animals only at mealtimes. So, they used the French word to describe the prepared dishes. Today, modern English speakers — regardless of social class — have come to use both.

The words "deer" and "venison," however, are a bit more complicated.

Etymology Online says "venison" comes from an Old French word from the 1300s (venesoun) meaning "'meat of large game,' especially deer or boar." And that Old French word comes from a Latin word (venation) meaning "a hunt, hunting, or the chase."

Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, any hunted animal was called venison after it was killed. And probably because deer were killed more than any other animal, "venison" came to mean "deer meat."

The words "chicken" and "fish" remain largely unchanged.

However, sometimes we use the word "poultry" when talking about buying a chicken, turkey, or other similar bird to eat. For example, a grocery store may have a place called "the poultry section."

But we don't use "poultry" when we order chicken or turkey at a restaurant, or serve it at a meal. We simply say "chicken" or "turkey."

For example, if I want to order my favorite dish, which is popular in the southern part of the United States, I will say, "I'll have the chicken and waffles, please." I would never order "poultry and waffles."

Lesser common birds, such as quail and pheasant, simply go by their own names.

The French word for "fish" is "poisson." Some word experts suspect that "poisson" is too close to the English word "poison" to become a common food word.

After all, even the food-rich culture of France cannot overcome the fact that eating poison might kill you or at least make you sick. As a result, anything that even sounds like "poison" will probably be an unpopular choice at mealtimes.

And that bring us to the end of another Words and Their Stories.

In your language, do the words for animals change when you eat them? Let us know in the Comments Section!

Thanks for joining us. I'm Anna Matteo.

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