Tuesday 26 January 2021

Mast

I was walking through the forest yesterday and I noticed that the oaks were full of acorns. I think this year could be a "mast year"...

Mast is English term used for the fruit of forest trees, most of all acorns and beach nuts, that have accumulated on the ground...

These were and still are in some parts of the world (Pic: knocking acorns for black pigs in Spain), used for fattening domestic pigs. Basically for quickly getting then build a lot of meat and fat before the first frost arrives and it's time for pig slaughter...

A mast year is when the trees that produce these fruits have a bumper crop and produce much more fruit than they normally would...Like this year in Dublin...

The English term "mast" (food for pigs) derives from the Old English "mæst" (food for pigs) with uncertain etymology. Apparently "from West Germanic; probably related to meat"...

If we go to the etymology for "meat" we find "Compare also Old Irish mes (animal feed) and Welsh mes (acorns), English mast (fodder for swine and other animals), which are PROBABLY from the same root as meat"...

Now have a look at this: Proto-Slavic "mastь", pronounced "mast" meaning fat, lard, grease. It is also found as "mas" without final "t". Derived from it are "maslo" (butter) and "maslina" (olive)...All fatty, oily things...

Also have a look at this: Proto-Slavic "męso", pronounced "meso" meaning meat, but not derived from the same PIE root as "meat"...

So 

We use "mæst" (Old English-uncertain origin) to fatten the pigs so that they can give us a lot of "mastь" (Proto-Slavic)...

Or 

We use "mes" (Old Irish-uncertain origin) or "mes" (Welsh-uncertain origin) to fatten pigs so they can give us a lot of "męso" (Proto-Slavic)...

I always found this very funny 🙂 Particularly the fact that "there are no etymological links between these words"...

For those interested in oaks and acorns and particularly human consumption of acorns here are few articles that talk about it

3 comments:

  1. Clap clap clap... Beautiful! Thank you for doing these, I can't be the only one finding so much joy in your work. -VS

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  2. I too really enjoy your profound knowledge and insights ! I believe MASTA is also the Farsi word for yogurt (curdy, fatty milk) i.e. a summer salad of cucumbers and yogurt = masta kier

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  3. Claim that "there are no etymological links between these words" may only mean that "after forming words by putting different sounds together, and then transforming those root words in several different ways to make them somehow easier to pronounce gives etymological connection between derived words".
    But, human mind is more than that, more abstract, able of predicting and reversing in time, transgressing, not like a computer program, at least not as modern computer program, don't know what to expect in the future, near or not so near. So, we could easily imagine village people in Serbia (or elsewhere, but different word would be used in that case), not so long ago, just before growing up in front of TV set, while looking at the oak trees full of accorns and saying: "Evo nama puno masti!" = "Oh, there is a plenty(puno/plno) of fat for us!" They would just talk in terms that are two steps in the future.

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