Etymology X! Food As a Lingua Franca

It’s hard to believe that this year is our 10th Etymology! weekend conference. As much as we’d love to be meeting on person, this is our third (and, for the love of all that is holy, we hope our last) online effort.

We are grateful for Zoom and the opportunity to continue our communal study.

This year, we’ll be taking food words under study. How have they changed? Where did they come from? How has cooking and eating shaped English?

We’ll have an introductory day of Etymology Basics on Friday, April 1st (and that’s no joke!). The Saturday and Sunday, our sessions will focus in on Food as a Lingua Franca.

Saturday evening we’ll have a cooking demo for those who’d like to participate, with special guest, home chef Amy Magnafichi Strong. She did this for us last year and it was a big hit. This year, Amy will be featuring food in translation — we’ll look at how the spread of English around the world also affected our cuisine. You’ll get ingredients, a shopping list, prep instructions ahead of time — and even wine recommendations! The dinner is one fee per screen, so the whole family can participate.

To sign up, go to this link. Select the $100 deposit, and then select the registration balance for the number of days you wish to attend. You can attend Etymology Basics on Friday only; you can attend Saturday and Sunday only; or you can attend all three days. All lecture sessions will be recorded and shared.

We hope you can join us! Bring a big appetite for the history of English and the study of words.