Where Does the Word Ketchup Come From? And Other Questions on the Language of Food

This week’s Please Explain is all about the language of food. Dan Jurafsky, professor of linguistics and computer science at Stanford University, investigates why we eat toast at breakfast and raise a toast at dinner, whether Thanksgiving turkey has anything to do with the country of Turkey, and examines the many words used to describe foods. He’s the author of The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu.