WONDROUS WORDS: Gavage
I ran across this “foodie” word in The Crowded Grave, the fourth in the Bruno, Chief of Police series.
“If’s there any cruelty, blame Mother Nature. Ducks and geese always stuff themselves to fill their livers before they fly off on winter migration. That’s how they store their energy . . .
From the look on Teddy’s face, it didn’t appear to Bruno that he knew that gavage, the force-feeding of the birds, was also a natural process.”
gavage: the administration of food or drugs by force, especially to an animal, typically through a tube leading down the throat to the stomach.
Gavage is a French word pronounced ɡəˈväZH and hardly needed that definition after the book excerpt. The Internet images for gavage are not pretty, so I chose the picture of these charming geese instead.
Do you have any other “foodie words” to share?
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love. It’s hosted by Kathy at Bermuda Onion. Hop on over and see what wondrous words other bloggers have discovered this week.
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Gavage sounds very unpleasant. It bothers me to think we do that to animals.
Me too, Kathy. I always buy my eggs from my neighbour because it drives me crazy to think of caged hens with clipped beaks. 🙁
Not a pleasant thing to have done.
Not at all, Mary Ann. We certainly wouldn’t want it done to us!
I’ve heard of forced feeding of animals, but didn’t know it had its own word. Good find Debbie.
I was intrigued by the title of the book and went to Goodreads to check it out. Now I’m really interested as I see its a nice series. I’m off to see if my local library carries them. Thanks for sharing.
Oh, this is a wonderful series, Margot! I have to make myself go slowly so that I don’t run out. I hope your library carries them.
The word gavage looked familiar to me but I wouldn’t have been able to define it. I never can remember to participate in this meme but it would encourage me to note the words whose meaning I guess at because I don’t want to stop reading.
Teresa, I often just put a sticky tag or book dart on the page and look up the word later, so I don’t have to stop reading either. 😉
I don’t have a foodie word but I did find a wondrous word in The Big Green Tent by Ludmila Ulitskaya. Neoteny which means “The retention of juvenile characteristics in the adults of a species, as among certain amphibians.” Reminded me of a certain person who is much in the news these days-:)
lol, Judy. Naming no names. 🙂
Great word, btw. One I think could come in very handy.
Cool, I didn’t know that this French word was used in English, and for once, used in the exact correct context lol.
And “se gaver” is to stuff one’s face!
I’m saying this, because most of the times, a French word has been accepted in the English language, but its meaning shifted in the process. To stay within food, the best example is ‘une entrée’. As ‘entrer’ mean to enter, what do you eat when you ‘enter your meal’? An appetizer, so that’s what ‘une entrée’ means in French.
But through an interesting evolution, ‘entrée’, with a lot of confusion by the way on the accent (it’s not unusual that to see it written ‘entreé’ on menus), it now means ‘the main dish’ in the US at least – and that would be ‘le plat principal’ or ‘le plat de résistance’ in French.
That quite threw me for a loop when I visited France, Emma. It took me a couple of days to figure out.
And thanks for “se gaver” – it might come in handy lol
I didn’t know there was a word for that. It certainly sounds nicer than “force feeding.”
French could just about anything sound nice, don’t you think, Lisa?