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• fricassee •

Pronunciation: fri-kê-see • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A dish made of poultry or meat, fresh or leftover, cut into small pieces, sautéed, then stewed in a gravy.

Notes: Remember that today's word is a rare one that contains two contiguous double letters, SS + EE. It is also commonly used as a verb, as Elmer Fudd's perennial attempts to fricassee the ever elusive Bugs Bunny.

In Play: Today's word is used almost exclusively to refer to a cooking style: "Molly had to rename the 'Roadkill Fricassee' on her menu because her patrons were never quite sure that it was a joke." Of course, that never stops us from finding metaphorical applications, "Sullivan's proposal contains nothing new; it is just a fricassee of leftover ideas from the proposal he made last year."

Word History: Today's word is the untarnished French past participle, fricassée, from fricasser "to fricassee". The French verb probably comes from a compound of frire "to fry" + casser "to break up, break apart". French frire descended from Latin frigere "to roast, fry", and is the source of English fry. This word shares a root with its near antonym fridigus "frigid" in the same way that cold and scald share the same original root. French cassare comes from Latin quassare "to shake, shatter". It would seem to be unrelated to quake despite the similarity in sound and meaning. (His family fricassees are such fond memories for Pierre M. Laberge of Sudbury, Ontario, that he thought we might find something appetizing in the word itself. I think we did.)

I never realized this word had such an interesting history. I would like to point out an English word that is even rarer in having THREE double letters in a row: bookkeeper.

Fricassee is rarely heard here in the hinterlands. We usually bole our food in water or deep-fry it in hog lard.

Please, Philip! Some of us are sophisticated enough to fry our catfish in corn oil.

Love you Southeners!
Am learning things about the South on that new
CSI New Orleans show. (Scott Bakula, Lucas Black)

The word ALWAYS puts me in mind of cartoon characters.

M. Bugs-Fudd-connection Bailey

Luke, I love New Orleans and watch the show. Much is accurate, but I have yet to hear a genuine NewOrleans accent (aka Yat), nor a Cajun. It's a very cosmopolitan city with all sorts of languages and accents. I've yet to find a bad place to eat there.

I would not recognize the accent if it hit me face on.
Lucas Black who plays Lasalle, is a former child actor
and he has always had the accent he has as Bakula's
junior. I like his give and take with Zoe (or is that
her real name?)-the way he teases her N Dak upbringing
and what she has to look forward to in Nyorleens.

A peculiarity of some New Orleans accents is that they have a hint of Brooklynese in them. A NO native once explained to me that the similarity is due to NO and Brooklynese both being "seaport accents" which he claims has wide currency. Has anyone heard of that?

I'm a thousand miles from an ocean, so I've not heard it,
but does lend one to think it has some credence.

I've heard the comparison to Brooklyn, but it's more subtle than Brooklynese. Never heard the seaport thing. If true, Boston and San Fran would have it.

A NO native once explained to me that the similarity is due to NO and Brooklynese both being "seaport accents" which he claims has wide currency. Has anyone heard of that?

I've heard and read that from multiple sources.