God bless the kids. They not only travel the world, but come back bearing all sorts of goodies: olive oil from Portugal, a ceramic jaguar head from Mexico.
Or this attractive jar of Italian pistachio spread, bought because I am a notorious fan of all things pistachio. Kind of like a green Nutella. Festive on tea biscuits, but not what I would call delicious. I wouldn't bother writing about it, except for this, on the back.
Take a quick read below. I'm sure what popped out at me will pop out at you. "Mix vigorously to amalgamate" — not a word that a native speaker would use. You'd think they could dragoon an American friend into checking their copy. Careless. Or maybe no Americans at hand. That's what social media is for.
I see how it happened. The label writer must not have wanted to use the word "mix" twice — that's a value of mine, too, not to repeat words, except for effect. The fix is easy enough —"Mix vigorously to blend and bring out ...."
But that left me wondering. When would you use "amalgamate"? To figure that out, we should know precisely what it means. "Combine or unite to form on organization or structure." That's why it clunks when applied to sweet spreads. I seem to remember "amalgamate" appearing in corporate names. There was an Amalgamated Bank of Chicago. I suppose the Sun-Times and WBEZ amalgamated into Chicago Public Media.
"Amalgam" is an interesting word. The Oxford English Dictionary traces it to "regular alchemical use in the 13th c. Usually taken as a perversion of L. malagma (in Pliny and the physicians) a mollifying poultice or plaster." Almalgamynge appears in Chaucer, and that opening "al" hints at Arabic origins. Al-jamca, "union, conjunction."
The OED defines "amalgamate" as "To soften or dissolve (a metal) by combination with mercury" and, later, "combined, united into one body."
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| Johnson's dictionary gives a step-by-step guide. |
The OED defines "amalgamate" as "To soften or dissolve (a metal) by combination with mercury" and, later, "combined, united into one body."
Thomas Jefferson used it. "It remains to amalgamate the comptroller and auditor into one." Doing a quick check, I see it is a word never before used on EGD. Now it has.
There's a redundancy in their translation. "Amalgamare" is a common term in Italian recipes. It simply means "mix thoroughly."
ReplyDeleteThat explains a lot —thanks for the contribution, Tony.
DeleteThe Amalgamated Transit Union – the largest labor union representing transit and allied workers in the U.S. and Canada – was founded in 1892. The ATU today is comprised of more than 200,000 members, including: metropolitan, interstate, and school bus drivers; paratransit, light rail, subway, streetcar, and ferry boat operators; mechanics and other maintenance workers; station agents, clerks, baggage handlers, municipal employees and others.
ReplyDeleteAmalgamated Bank is the largest union-owned bank and one of the only unionized banks in the country. Amalgamated Bank is currently owned by Workers United, an SEIU affiliate. It was founded in 1923, by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. It has $7.8 billion in assets, and operates in New York, California, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and Colorado.