blancmange / blancmanger, nouns.

Now and then, mostly for my education and for fun, I find words I didn't know and see what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say about them. I should add that the OED is available to most of us, visiting or online, in our public libraries. It is one of my favorite resources and a volume I have found invaluable. See https://www.oed.com.

Today's examples are blancmange and blancmanger, both nouns. Here are the OED's revelations about those words, intriguing at least to me:

Forms:  Middle English blancmanger(e, blank(e)manger(e, bla-, blam-, blan-, blaumanger

Etymology: In 14th cent. blancmanger, < Old French blanc-manger (earlier -mangier...)

†a. Formerly: A dish composed usually of fowl, but also of other meat, minced with cream, rice, almonds, sugar, eggs, etc. Obsolete.

 b. Now: A sweetmeat made of dissolved isinglass or gelatine boiled with milk, etc., and forming an opaque white jelly; also a preparation of cornflour and milk, with flavouring substances. (Isinglass is another word that may not be familiar to readers. I draw here from Wikipedia:

(Parenthetically, "isinglass (/ˈaɪzɪŋɡlæs, -ɡlɑːs/) is a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish. It is a form of collagen used mainly for the clarification or fining of some beer and wine. It can also be cooked into a paste for specialised gluing purposes. The English word origin is from the obsolete Dutch huizenblaas – huizen is a kind of sturgeon, and blaas is a bladder, or German Hausenblase, meaning essentially the same.") What a splendid inquiry within an inquiry.

1377   W. Langland Piers Plowman B. xiii. 91   Þat neither bacoun ne braune · blan [c] mangere ne mortrewes Is noither fisshe [ne] flesshe · but fode for a penaunte. [Patience, please, with the OED's wonderful examples of the evolution of historical usage.]

c1405  (▸c1387–95)    G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 389   For Blankmanger [v.r. blankemangere] that made he with the beste.

a1475   J. Russell Bk. Nurture (Harl. 4011) in Babees Bk. (2002) i. 165   Two potages, blanger mangere, & Also Iely.

a1475   Liber Cocorum (Sloane) (1862) 19 (heading)    Blanc maungere of fysshe.

1483   Cath. Angl. 34   Blawemanger, peponus.

1530   Ortus Voc.   Blowmanger.

1603   P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 680   Their blamangers, jellies, chawdres.

1626   F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §48   Blanch-Manger or Jelly.

1769   E. Raffald Experienced Eng. House-keeper vii. 171   To make Blomange of Isinglass.

1790   Coll. Voy. round World I. iii. 54   Its flavour was something like blanc mange.

1801   J. Wolcot Epist. to Count Rumford in Wks. (1812) V. 137   Soap~suds to Syllabubs and Trifles change, And Bullocks' Lights and Livers to Blamange.

1812   L. Hunt in Examiner 21 Dec. 801/1   Trembling at its fate, like blanc-manger.

1862   Mrs. Beeton Cookery Bk. 44/1   Loosen the edges of the blanc~mange from the mould.

1790   E. Burke Corr. (1844) III. 157   Whenever that politic prince made any of his flattering speeches...when he served them with this, and the rest of his blanc-mange, of which he was sufficiently liberal.

 

Before (or after) you find me simply weird, I should say that this brief review is no more, no less than an example, words which I have no expectation of using—say in my correspondence with friends—as it would require at least some of the above text as an awkward footnote, which some would regard legitimately as pretentious.