Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 56. The word origin today is
French toast. Okay. Let's look at the note here. There were different versions of
French toast dating back to the 5th century. There was
a version of French toast that was made in France during the 17th century called
pain perdu which in French basically means lost bread. All right. So why do they call it
lost bread ? Because it was stale. It would have been wasted anyway. This was because
it was mostly made from stale bread and dipping it in milk egg and cinnamon was
a way of masking the stale taste. So if they didn't do that, they probably would
how to throw the bread away, and it would have been lost or wasted bread. But they
were able to figure out a way to save the bread and still make it kind of
tasty by baking ... by turning it into what you know, is today French toast or pretty
close to French toast. Because of course there were a lot of versions over the
years. Let's continue. Pain Perdu is what the French in France today referred to
as French toast too. Okay, So let's continue. However the origin of the name is not
connected to this or to France, to its culture, to its cuisine... Yeah. Basically at
least not in English anyway. According to legend, the man who created the modern
day version of French toast was an innkeeper from Albany, New York. His name
was Joseph French. Thus the word French in French toast
refers to his last name, his family name. He created the dish in 1724 and started
to advertise it as French toast. Now there are some people who say that his
grammar was poor. That he should have said French's toast you know for his
last name. And he just called it French toast. But either way. That's the way he
referred to it and the name has stuck ever since.
So that's what that's where the origin of the name in English comes from . Anyway,
French toast it was from this innkeeper in 1724. But there were versions of
French toast long before that. Okay. Anyway I hope you
got it. I hope it was clear. I hope it was informative.
Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.