1.0Glossaryhttps://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/glossaryGlossaryhttps://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/glossary/author/adminglossary/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="sD6iaWkkSu"><a href="https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/glossary/spotted-dick/">Spotted dick</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/glossary/spotted-dick/embed/#?secret=sD6iaWkkSu" width="600" height="338" title="“Spotted dick” — Glossary" data-secret="sD6iaWkkSu" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); //# sourceURL=https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/glossary/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js </script> https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/glossary/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Spotted-dick.jpg800510Although you might expect spotted dick—a kind of suet pudding—to have been given its name by a man prone to whimsy or hypochondria, the name of the dish actually has a very sober origin. Since the early nineteenth century, dick referred to a cheese made in Suffolk, one of England's many counties; the name of this cheese was originally spelt with a capital D, suggesting that it may have been derived from some now-forgotten Dick. Shortly after, the name of the cheese was borrowed as a synonym for pudding, and was often used in conjunction with other words that indicated the type of pudding. Thus, treacle dick was pudding served with a treacle sauce, while spotted dick was pudding made with currants that "spotted" the surface of the dessert. (Dick, incidentally, did not become a slang term for penis until the late nineteenth century, well after dick the pudding had established itself.) Another dish that appears to have a whimsical name is petticoat tails, a kind of butter-cake first referred to at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Like spotted dick, however, the name petticoat tails originated from what was once a straightforward name: the French petit gateau, meaning little cake, was simply corrupted by the English to the more familiar-sounding petticoat tails. Other dishes, however, have names intended from the start to be whimsical. Bubble and squeak, for example, a dish of meat and cabbage fried together, received its name in the mid eighteenth century from the sounds it emits as it cooks. Around the same time, a dish made by cooking sausages in batter came to be known as toad in the hole because of its resemblance to that zoological phenomenon. In the late nineteenth century, a more poetic resemblance led to the name angels on horseback, denoting a canape made by rolling oysters in bacon and then serving them on crisp toast. However, the name that best manages to be both whimsical and literal belongs not to a dish, but to a beverage: merry go down, a strong ale popular in the sixteenth century.