Last night my poor little Rowyn had a toenail come off (ouch!), and his papa said that that surely deserved as much consideration as losing a tooth. So Rowyn got to pick dinner. Hence how the White family ended up eating waffles, macaroni and cheese, and grapes, LOL.
And hence why I thought to look up waffle this week. 😉 It’s pretty interesting!
The waffle we know, love, and eat comes directly from the Dutch wafel, which comes in turn from a very, very old German word, wabila, which means “web, honeycomb.” It made it into English by 1744–and waffle iron in 1790! I had no idea they were that old.
But then there’s the verb, the one that means “to vacillate.” I’ve always wondered what in the world that had to do with a tasty breakfast food. Turns out, NOTHING. They’re from completely different roots. Waffle, the verb, came around in the 1690s as an imitation of a bark or yelp (like “woof”). By 1701, it meant “to talk foolishly.” That’s the meaning that led, a hundred years later, to the one we use today. It was first used in Scotland and northern England…while the Dutch deliciousness was making
its way to us from a different direction. 😉
~*~
Now onto some business! The Veterans Day Sale on Ring of Secrets and Whispers from the Shadows will be over on Tuesday, November 12, at 11:59 p.m., so if you’re looking for that perfect time to buy a digital, it’s here!
Digitals of Ring of Secrets are only .99!
Digitals of Whispers from the Shadows are only .99!
And don’t forget that I’m running a giveaway for a few more days of one of my favoritest books, The Unlikely Debut of Ellie Sweet (or the first book, The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet, if you haven’t read that one yet). These books are amazing! Check out the giveaway here.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
Haha, sounds like Rowyn enjoyed his dinner! I hope his toenail grows back quickly.
It is strange to see how the same words with different meanings can have so many different origins. It's really neat to try to see how they come together — or sometimes just what they are. 🙂