Word of the Week: Etymology of Cole Slaw

 *"Word of the Week" is a meme hosted by the Plain-Spoken Pen on Mondays in which we share a word that we find entertaining, enlightening, edifying, or just plain fun to say! 

I'm back to etymology this week.

We have relatives coming into town over Easter weekend, and thinking about that led me to thinking about feeding them, which led me to thinking about take-out, which led me to thinking about side dishes, which led me to cole slaw.  

I live in the Southern US, and slaw (as we call it) is a staple side dish for potlucks, picnics, funeral meals, and family get-togethers. It's highly popular when served with another Southern staple, barbeque. 

In my part of the world cole slaw is mainly just shredded cabbage (green or red or a mix) and shredded carrots mixed with mayonnaise and your choice of seasoning, usually black pepper, maybe some dried mustard, and/or a little sugar.  Other regional recipes are made with vinegar/vinaigrette instead, or some sort of salad dressing, or even sour cream, with spices and additions varying widely.

Personally, I hate the stuff.  But that's a nonissue here.

Why, I wondered, is the dish called "cole slaw"?  Perhaps a corruption of "cold"? But where'd the "slaw" part come from?  The internet to the rescue.

Cole slaw, it seems, has Dutch roots, with the world "cole" coming from the word "kool" (cabbage).  "Slaw" comes from "salade" (salad), shortened to "sla".  The two combined sometime in the 18th century to form "koolsla", around which time the dish was brought to the US and the name changed to "coleslaw" or "cole slaw" depending on where you live.

Not particularly exciting, as far as etymology goes, but interesting all the same because cabbage is not native to North America, and yet was widely used enough by the 18th century to be a popular dish.

Oh, you want to know more about that cabbage, you say?  Well, I'll tell you!

It's an ancient plant, probably domesticated before 1000 B.C.  It was extremely popular in Europe by the High Middle Ages (roughly 1000-1300 A.D.). During the 17th and 18th century cabbage became a staple in many of the more northern European countries.  The Low Countries and Germany began to pickle it as a scurvy preventative around the same time (sauerkraut).  French explorer Jacque Cartier brought it over in the mid-1500s, and it was popular enough here that cole slaw was a popular dish by the mid-to-late 1700s.

So, now that you know far more about cole slaw and cabbages than you ever wished, what side dish is a staple for your part of the world?  And did you find any words of interest this past week?