英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

ambergris (n.)[ambergris 词源字典]: early 15c., from Middle French ambre gris "gray amber" (see amber), "a wax-like substance of ashy colour, found floating in tropical seas, a morbid secretion from the intestines of the sperm-whale. Used in perfumery, and formerly in cookery" [OED]. Its origin was a mystery in Johnson's day, and he records nine different theories. King Charles II's favorite dish was said to be eggs and ambergris [Macauley, "History of England"]. French gris is from Frankish *gris or some other Germanic source (cognates: Dutch grijs, Old High German gris; see gray (adj.)).
Praise is like ambergris; a little whiff of it, by snatches, is very agreeable; but when a man holds a whole lump of it to his nose, it is a stink and strikes you down. [Pope, c. 1720]
[ambergris etymology, ambergris origin, 英语词源]
chowder (n.): 1751, American English, apparently named for the pot it was cooked in: French chaudière "a pot" (12c.), from Late Latin caldaria (see caldron). The word and the practice introduced in Newfoundland by Breton fishermen, and spreading thence to New England.
CHOWDER. A favorite dish in New England, made of fish, pork, onions, and biscuit stewed together. Cider and champagne are sometimes added. Pic-nic parties to the sea-shore generally have a dish of chowder, prepared by themselves in some grove near the beach, from fish caught at the same time. [John Russell Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1859]
The derogatory chowderhead (1819) is a corruption of cholter-head (16c.), from jolthead, which is of unknown origin.
scrapple (n.): "scraps of pork and cornmeal seasoned, boiled, and pressed into large cakes," 1850, probably a diminutive form of scrap (n.1) with -el (2). Noted especially, and perhaps originally, as a regional favorite dish in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.