11 Bizarre Food Word Origins You’ll Never Unsee Again

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Some food names make sense.
Others? They’re weird little linguistic puzzles wrapped in sauce, seasoning, and centuries of miscommunication.

I started looking into where some of these everyday words came from… and things got out of hand fast.

From pasta that sounds like a death threat to avocados you’ll never look at the same way again — here are 11 of the strangest, most unhinged food name origins I found.

1. Taco Means Something Completely Different in Mining

Before it was edible, a taco was an explosive.

Mexican silver miners in the 18th century used small paper charges filled with gunpowder to blast rocks — they called those charges tacos.

Later, the word transferred to street food, and somehow we all just accepted that biting into a handheld explosion was normal.

2. Avocados… Are Named After Testicles

Let’s ruin guacamole real quick.

The word avocado comes from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word “āhuacatl”, which meant… testicle. Probably due to the shape. Or maybe the way they hang. I don’t want to think about it too much.

Nature really said fruit with benefits.

3. Ketchup Didn’t Start with Tomatoes (or America)

Your fries’ best friend actually started as a fermented fish sauce from China.

The original word, kê-tsiap, came from Hokkien Chinese and referred to a briny, tangy sauce made from pickled fish. English traders brought the idea home, ditched the fish, added tomatoes, and somehow we got ketchup.

Honestly? Still less weird than “catsup.”

4. Pineapples Are Just a Hot Mess of a Name

Pineapples aren’t pines. They’re not apples. They’re just… spiky and confusing.

European explorers mashed the two words together because the fruit looked like a pinecone but tasted like an apple. That’s it. That’s the whole logic.

To this day, the French call it ananas. And honestly? They might be right.

5. The Sandwich Is Named After a Man Who Wouldn’t Leave the Table

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, wanted to keep gambling without stopping to eat. So he told his servant to just shove some meat between two slices of bread.

It caught on. Now he’s immortalized in lunchboxes forever.

The man really bet it all on cold cuts. 

6. The Word “Whiskey” Thinks It’s a Life Coach

The word whiskey comes from the Old Irish phrase “uisce beatha”, which translates to “water of life.”

It was meant spiritually, medicinally… maybe wishfully. Either way, the rebrand from “uisce” to “whiskey” happened when English speakers couldn’t pronounce the original.

If you’ve ever called whiskey a coping mechanism, you’re not alone. The Irish got there first.

7. Macaroni Was Once an Insult. Not a Noodle.

The 1700s were wild.

“Macaroni” was used as slang for someone who dressed ridiculously fancy — think powdered wigs, feathers, and drama. So when Americans sang “Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni,” they were mocking British fashion, not pasta preferences.

Eventually, the word lost the fashion meaning but kept the carb energy.

8. Croissants Are a Victory Snack

That buttery French croissant?

Born from anti-Ottoman propaganda.

Legend has it that bakers in Vienna created the crescent shape to celebrate a 17th-century victory over the Ottomans — whose symbol was the crescent moon. Bite the croissant, defeat your enemies.

Honestly? Delicious revenge.

9. Marzipan Might Mean “March Bread”… Or a Box. Or a Myth.

No one agrees on where marzipan comes from, and the theories are as nutty as the treat itself.

Some say it’s from “Martius panis” (March bread). Others say it comes from an Arabic word for a storage box (mauthaban). One version even says it’s from the name of a Venetian coin.

Whatever the case, it sounds fancy and tastes like almonds, so it wins.

10. Toffee Might Be a Burnt Offering

The word toffee likely comes from the word “tough” — because, well, it’s tough.

But another theory links it to “tafia,” a cheap kind of rum that was once used in early toffee recipes. So it may have originally meant “rum candy” or “burnt sugar and regret.”

Honestly checks out.

 

11. This Pasta Name Literally Means “Priest Strangler”

At first glance, strozzapreti sounds delicious—something you’d twirl lovingly onto your fork, top with parmesan, and Instagram under soft lighting.

But here’s the plot twist: the name literally means “priest stranglers.”

Yup. Not a vibe. And no one’s 100% sure where it came from.

One theory says local cooks named the pasta after overfed priests who would gorge themselves on the dish so fast they might, quite literally, choke.

Another story claims it was named by anti-clerical Italians who were a little too enthusiastic about, shall we say, “quieting the clergy.”

Even the pasta shape adds to the drama: it’s long, twisted, and slightly aggressive—like a noodle with unresolved tension.

Whatever the truth, the name stuck. And today, you can find strozzapreti proudly listed on menus across Italy and beyond… hopefully without causing any divine indigestion.