[Leica] Some hard-boiled research.

["Chandos Michael Brown" <cmbrow@wm.edu>]

I indulge in amateur culinary history so this business about
"hard-boiled" interested me.

Now that I'm in the office, I pulled vol. VI of the Oxford English
Dictionary off the shelf and note that it finds the first use of "hard
boiled" as an adjective to describe the degree of doneness of an egg in
J. Nott's -Cooks & Confectioners Dictionary-, published in 1723, with
many following citations of English culinary texts.

To my surprise, Mark Twain appears to have been the first to employ the
phrase as a verb, in 1895, where doubtless D.H. Lawrence encountered it,
for he uses it thusly in 1930.

I am perfectly well aware of the deficiencies of the OED in regard to
etymologies and first usages (in fact, a footnote in one of my published
articles corrects its identification of the first use of "cosmopolitan"
in English.

I suggest that this is an "Atlantic-English" usage, with regional
variations throughout the US.

There is no entry in the OED for "hard cooked."


Chandos



Chandos Michael Brown
History and American Studies
College of William and Mary
www.wm.edu/cas/asp/faculty/brown


- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Martin
Howard
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 1:00 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Ireland suggestions

Marc James Small wrote:

> Steve Unsworth wrote:
>> Well once again sorry to disappoint, but in my part of the UK at 
>> least 'hard
>> boiled' is 'hard boiled'. I have _never_ heard the phrase 'hard 
>> cooked'.
>
> How many citations to British, Irish, and Scottish cookery books do 
> you wish?

Right.  I'm sure that umpteen cookery book citations from an American 
in the US will convince Steve, who is LIVING in the UK -- or the rest 
of us for that matter -- what the correct British English phrase is.

Jeez.

M.

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