Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC
Learning English. I'm Neil.
And I'm Rob.
In this programme, we're talking about biscuits!
Biscuits - a subject very close to my heart -
something important to me and that interests me.
I know, Rob. You are a biscuit connoisseur after
all. And in the UK, many of us love to nibble
on these sweet treats. And we have lots of
names for them too.
Yes, we have the chocolate digestive, the
garibaldi, the custard cream and the jammie
dodger. It's making my mouth water.
I can see. But we're not going to be
tucking into any biscuits today.
Instead, we'll be looking at the origins
and the language of this humble
snack. And before we do that, Rob,
let's test your knowledge of biscuits
with a question. The British aren't the
only fans of biscuits. So in which country
are barazeks traditionally eaten?
Is it in... a) Syria, b) Morocco, or c)Spain?
Hmmm, well, I have not eaten one, but I'll
have a guess at Syria.
OK, I'll reveal the right answer later on.
But now, let's talk more about biscuits,
also sometimes known as cookies.
They come in all shapes, sizes
and varieties.
They can be sweet or savoury - but
I prefer the sweet ones that are crisp,
crunchy and are good for dunking
in my tea. 'Dunking' means dipping into
liquid for a short period of time.
But enough about your eating habits,
Rob. Let's find out how the biscuit got
its name. It's something the BBC
Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth has
been exploring. Dr Laura Wright, a
historical linguist from the University of
Cambridge, explains its origins...
From Latin 'biscoctum' - twice cooked.
And it comes to us via Anglo-Norman French,
but it's bread that's been cooked twice to
extract all the moisture so that it goes hard,
and it'll stay fit for consumption for a
long time, which is why you can take it to sea
and have a sea biscuit... and from the
1500 at least we spelt it like it sounds 'bisket'
but at some point, in the 1800, we started to
prefer the French spelling for
reasons of poncy-ness!
So, the English word for biscuits has its origins
in Latin. It describes cooking bread twice to
make it hard. This baking process meant a
biscuit could be kept for a long time, and as
Dr Wright said, it would stay fit for consumption
- another way of saying edible or able
to be eaten.
That's why they were taken on long
sea voyages - but they weren't like the
biscuits we eat now - they were plain,
simple and very hard baked.
Interestingly, the word biscuit used to
be spelt B-I-S-K-E-T but the French
spelling B-I-S-C-U-I-T was later adopted.
Biscuits are a handy go-to snack for
when I'm hungry or bored. But how
did biscuits become such a popular
foodstuff and how did we come to
depend on them so much?
It's something Anastasia Edwards, author
of Biscuits and Cookies, A Global History,
talked about in the Word of Mouth
programme. Listen to the word she uses
to mean 'food' in her explanation.
One key fact in the rise in the popularity
of the biscuit is meal times. Before the
Industrial Revolution, people have a later
breakfast and earlier supper. By the
end of the Industrial Revolution,
breakfast is much earlier, the
evening meal is much later, so you've
got this big gap of time where people
need sustenance, and so lunch comes
to greater prominence and tea time
comes to greater prominence, and
snacking - so there's this great
opportunity for biscuits - something
small, something ready, something
easily consumable, not expensive,
you know, a bit of a sugar rush.
Right, so it was the Industrial Revolution
that led to the rise - that's the increase -
in the popularity of biscuits. Because
the time between breakfast and dinner
in the evening increased, people got
hungry and they needed food to give
them energy - what Anastasia
called 'sustenance'.
So, this is when smaller meals, such as
lunch or tea, became important or
more well-known - it had greater
prominence. And this included snacking
on biscuits. These were cheap and
easily consumable - easy and
quick to eat. And because of their
ingredients, they gave you a
sugar rush - a quick blast of energy.
Of course, now, we eat biscuits
at any time, and because of their
sugar content, we know to only eat
them in moderation Rob!
I think a packet a day is fine - but
a whole box, well, that would
really take the biscuit!
Take the biscuit! Good idiom
there, Rob, to mean 'be the most foolish,
annoying or surprising thing to do'.
But now let s find out the answer to
my quiz question. Earlier, I asked
which country are barazeks
traditionally eaten in?
And I thought Syria. Was I right?
Yes, you were. Well done.
You are a smart cookie! Barazeks
are biscuits filled with roasted sesame
seeds and pistachio chips.
They sound delicious. I would love to try some.
OK, well we've been discussing the
language of biscuits and mentioned
some of these words. 'Dunking' describes
dipping something, like a biscuit, into
liquid for a short period of time.
Describing something as being fit
for consumption means it is edible -
which is another one of our words
and means 'it can be eaten'.
'Sustenance' is another word for food.
And something that has 'prominence'
is important or more well-known.
And when you get a 'sugar rush', you
get a quick blast of energy from,
unsurprisingly, eating something
containing lots of sugar.
OK, well, we only get six minutes for
this programme - that's the way the
cookie crumbles - so we're out of time.
Bye for now.
Goodbye.