Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-11-13

The New York Evening Sun,
prompted by correspondent takes up
the old question whether certain well
known table dainty should be called
Welsh rabbit or Welsh rareblt, and de-
cides in favor Of the former. The au-
thoritles are certainly on the side Of the
rabbit.
The STANDARD dictionary says;
"Welsh rabbit. cheese toasted or
melted. generally seasoned and served
on toast. The phrase appears TO be Of
slang origin, much as panhash, pam
rabbit, means scrapple or mush. and
Munster plums means potatoes.
The form rarebit, given by Crosse and
other Old dictionaries, Is now regarded
as erroneous
The Century gives this definition:
Welsh rabbit--a term OF ocular OIL
gin. formed after the fashion Of Nor
folk capoI, d red herring Owing to the
absuru notion that rabbit In this phrase
Is corruption Of rareblt las II a rare
btu the word is often so written"
The following is quoted from Mac
millans magazine;
Welsh rabbit Is genuine slang
term. belonging 10 a large group which
describe In the same humorous way
the special dish OF product or peculiar
ity Of particular district; - an
Essex Hon Is a calf, Field Lane dish IL
l,lf 10 "a oil
trates or Norfolk capons are red her
rings. Irish apricots or Munster pluns
are potatoes; Grayesend sweetmeats
are shrimps"
Concerning the history Of the term
'rareDit' the Sun gives the following
explanations:
THE way the absurd 'rareblt came
into usage on the part IL the ignorant
was as follows: DR.. Trench, some time
Archbishop Of Dublin. wrote a book on
English Past and Present which HAD
large circulation In this country ana
England DR.. Trench. when he was
stuck for a derivation. had the bad
habit Of inventing one, or taking one al
ready IN existence that appealed TO him
as ingenious. What more natural, he
pointed out, than that cooked cheese
served on toast should have. been de-
clared b. the man who discovered it,
excellence. by happy chance. to be
rare Bit? a very lovely theory, but 1t
won't hold water"
The tracing Of words to their begin
ming is truly fascinating occupation.
A great many familiar words have the
most unexpected origin. In recent
work on words and their way, by James
Bradstreet Greenough, and George Ly-
man Kitredge, we are told that "cai-
tiff" for instance. is the old French for
captive" which was applied to signify
first poor creatures" generally. and
then towards" "Bedlam' is a corrupt
ed form OF Bethlehem The origin Of the
term dates back to the time when the
monasteries of England 'fere seized,
during the reign OF Henry VIII. and
one Of them called "the Hospice OF st.
Mary of Bethlehem was given to Lon
don for an insane asylum The word
demon, now used to designate an evil
spirit. once stood for divinity" The
change dates back TO the early strug-
giles OF Christianity with paganism. The
fathers did not deny the existence OF
pagan divinitles or demons. But they
regarded them as evil spirits that were
deceiying mankind. And thus, through
the prevalence of the new religion. de
mons came TO mean "evil spirits"
Every word Of the language has its
own interesting history. In many in
stances this history is perhaps lost for
ever. but the researches Of etymologists
have yielded an abundant harvest.