What did they call this MEDIEVAL FRUIT?
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- Опубліковано 21 гру 2023
- Jason Kingsley, the Modern Knight, discusses an unusual and important medieval fruit that was popular in the past but had a very rude name. The medlar was widely grown, used and known in medieval England. #historyfacts #history #medieval
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Whats interesting is that because this fruit has been neglected in modern society you havent had people meddling with it too much to breed specific flavour traits, so youre basically getting the truest form of its flavour and texture
not entirely sure you even could breed them to have specific traits. they are related to apples and apples famously adopt pretty much random flavour profiles in fruit on trees from seedlings (if you like a cultivar you have to propagate it by cloning/grafting)
@fariesz6786
Fun fact: lots of fruits and vegetables are being bred to have higher and higher sugar content.
This is a problem for feeding animals in zoos cuz it's making them fat and diabetic.
@@fariesz6786 Pears, peaches, apricots, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, roses, and a whole host more cultivated plants are just as closely related to apples, they're all from the family Rosaceae. Most of the other rosaceae can be (selectively) bred just fine. The behaviour of apples is so famous precisely *because* it is so unique.
No medelling with the Medlars then😂
Medlar makes a delicious fruit gin
I grew up in Iran, where medlars are still widely cultivated. When I was a kid (back in the time of the Shah) they were a treat that was only available for a couple of weeks in the fall. The season for them was very short. I guess the growers would blet them and bring them to the markets just when they were about to be edible, and people in the big city would only see them in the market for a brief time. It's hard to describe a flavour, and I haven't had a medlar in more than forty years, but I'm sure tasting one now would be like a madeleine moment bringing a rush of memories from childhood.
You can go to Bulgaria and you can taste them again 😉. They are still grown everywhere. We also make sweet preserved medlars.
Yes, iran has the most cultivars of medlars, there is even ones that can be eaten fresh. Quinces too, iran has so many fantastic quince types some can be eaten as an apple uncooked
Going by Wikipedia (not a botanist, I only knew the regular 'Mispel'), its German names include Arschperln (Ass pearls) and Hundsärsch (Dog's ass).
lol, same idea, different languages!
Ass pearls! Now that's a proper name. :D
The good old Mispel.....I had a feeling that our German ancestors woud make associations similar to those of their neighbours.. 😂. Thanks for checking!
Definitely made me chuckle 😅 if someone would ask me would I like to have "Ass pearls"? My first guess wouldn't be a fruit lol. Anyways interesting video as always! 👍🏻
I once confused "Schattenmorellen" and "Winterkirschen". The laughts where on me... "Could you give me some Winterkirschen?"
"O that she were an open-arse and thou a popp'rin pear"
😮
In Italy is called "nespolo". Is the origin of an ancient proverb: "con il tempo e con la paglia maturano anche le nespole" (with time and straw also the medlars ripe). It means that you have to have patience and work to resolve an unpleasant situation.
Love that. Thank you 😊
@@iahelcathartesaura3887 thank you. I only knew the Italian name. Grazie
Foods lost to the ages like this are fascinating to me. Fantastic video as always!
Glad you enjoyed it
It's not lost to the ages at all; you can go buy Medlar jelly at the supermarket!
Its not that lost! As a Child we had it in our garden. But I never ate it.. Must try it when I visit my Mum and dad and when its ripe
You’d like Weird Explorer.
That's something that could potentially save your life in a famine!
You see, an acquaintance of mine emigrated to a Spanish island and the people there ignored the mushrooms in the forest despite them being sold for a small fortune in my place... In our woods, they are pretty much extinct due to scavengers!
We probably don't eat 50-90% of the stuff medieval people ate and only 0.0001% of all the edible plants around. When you think of how few people would recognize how the plants you can buy in the supermarket look above ground, or how few would recognize Asian staple crops that can be grown here as well, you can easily make up a top 100 of plants that you could grow in an abandoned place without anyone eating it...
I love that fruit 😍
In Germany it's called Mispel or Hundsärschle (which literally means "little ass of a dog").
Not far from where I live is a group of really old, wild medlar trees. The trees get quite gnarled over the years, so the place looks really beautiful and a bit enchanted. I go there every year and pick a bunch of fruits and make jam out of it. It makes a nice Christmas gift and my family is always looking forward to it, especially since it's nothing you could find in a supermarket :)
Find a woman that makes you homemade hound ass jelly
That was great! 👍
Love this tradition!
So what does it taste like? (I guess this might be as difficult as my trying to explain to you what a prickly pear tastes like.) It's related to the apple, as are quince, but the latter retains some of the rose flavor (a common ancestor to both) the apple has lost. Does medlar?
@pricklypear7516 they do taste quite similar to apples. Or more like apple sauce, due to the really soft texture of the ripe fruit. I personally won't say that they taste like roses, but a bit like rose hips.
I describe the flavour as an earthier version of boskoop apples with hints of apricot and vanilla.
Sir Jason's Open Ass Pies, coming soon to a grocer near you.
I’d watch the video, but I can’t be arsed…I’ll show myself out.
Shut the door behind you 😊
@@margarethughes3763 make hay while the horse poops lol
Badum... tssss
I think it's pretty common to give rude names to fruit. Apparently avocado means 'testicle' in Aztec.
And I imagine many other fruits and other plants in many cultures have been named for their semblance to body parts.
In my country we have an heirloom variety of tomato called "girl's breast" and it has indeed the shape of a very small one with a protruding tip.
@@YamiKisarawe have a variety of tomato called dog's penis
Then there's the term "banana hammock" for men's swim gear.
Aubergine basically means testicle too!
Great. So that means when I lived in Florida and set up an avocado stand on the side of the road near my house, I guess the sign I put up read "Fresh Giant Testicles, $2 each" to any ancient Aztec that saw it.
I had not heard of this fruit. Here in the USA there is something similar called a wild persimmon. It also is not good until it's way past its prime after the first few frosts of fall.
They are ready at nearly the same time, easily grown in the same environment. The medlars are more forgiving, as you're never going to accidentally eat one that's unripe.
That is true for southern populations of American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) but northern populations are ready long before the first frost. The persimmons in my area are ready to eat as early as late September.
Traditionally here in the South the persimmon was combined with the honey locust to make a form of beer.
Crushed persimmons and locusts were simply placed in a barrel that was filled with pure spring water, covered with a thick cloth and left to ferment.
Never knew the name of those, did mention you can grow Medlars in the Southern US, but knew they weren't the same plant.
Where I live is quite far south; i've never seen a persimmon on a tree, but my father grew up in this area, and he would have scavenged everything edible he could get to. He always said you couldn't stand the bitterness of them until after frost sweetened them up. I don't think you'd eat many underripe persimmons....
I am in the Society for Creative Anachronism here in California--and medlars are quite popular with our people, some of whom grow the fruit that the rest of us enjoy from time to time.
We've got a saying in the Netherlands that's still being used regarding this fruit. 'Zo rot als een mispel' which would translate to something like 'As rotten as a mispel'. We use the word mispel for the fruit as well as the tree/bush itself.
I'm from the Netherlands and I didn't know that. Weer wat geleerd. Thanks!
Fascinating
@@freshpressedify Maybe its different per region. Ik kom van origine uit Brabant misschien is dat het ;)
During the communist years in Bulgaria (where the tree is very common), they taught us that capitalism is rotten. And there was a saying, "Yes, it is. Capitalism is like the medlar.The more it rots, the sweeter it gets"
What to say about this latest video? It was very entertaining to say the least. I giggled my way through. Learned about a fruit I never had heard of before. The Modern Knight strikes again. Love the Medieval door in his castle wall! Merry Christmas to everyone. Looking forward to more MHTV in 2024.
Thanks, I enjoyed doing the research for this.
Food history is fascinating to me. I would love to see a recipe. Tasting History With Max Miller might be a good bet for that. I'll ask him. Thank you for all your efforts on this one😁
@@paulapridy6804What a good idea. It would be interesting to see what Max makes of that fruit. 🙂🖖
Who wouldn't love to be Jason? What a rock star. At least we get educated when we live vicariously through him.
But the teeth, I guess he keeping in the time period.
@@unnamedchannel1237 What's wrong with his teeth? They look pretty clean and looked after to me
My family grows them and describing the taste as a slightly tangy apple with bready undertones is pretty spot on! You can make a sauce for roasted meat out of it. Most fruit are better after frost, since the sugar content goes up, but it's hard to protect them from birds, so not that many are used that way - I highly recommend you try ash berries, blackthorn berries and mandarin oranges (these in particular make an amazing snack in summer, just wipe them clean, put them in your freezer, take one out roughly five minutes before you wanna eat them, rub the peel of, be amazed), and special dessert wines made from frozen grapes!
We in the US have s fruit similar in nature but vastly different in appearance. It is called a persimmon and ripens in November where I live. It is bright yellow, orange or red and about the size of a large Mandarin orange. Unripe it is bitter and inedible, but left to near rotting stage, feeling like you described, a bag of apple sauce, it is the sweetest of fruits. Many people have the trees as decorative and then consider the fruit a nuisance. The more for me to glean!
I was thinking of Persimmon as he described the way they are left until after frost to fully ripen.
@@jasonremy1627 It makes it so much easier to harvest them, access and no insects.
They are called Mushmuli in Bulgarian and I still have one in my orchard. They are super tasty despite how they look - a mix between apple, banana and a little bit of cornelian cherry. Also in bulgarian when they turn brown and ready to eat we say they are ripen, not rotten. I don't believe rotten is a proper descriptor for the chemistry that's going on there.
Rotten doesn't sound right. Lol. Ripe medlars are frost-bitten medlars. That's when we pick them in Hungary. We call them "naspolya" [ ˈnɒʃpojɒ] by the way.
I'm curious, is there a colorful translation into English for terms used for the fruit? So far I've seen French (monkey's ass and dog's ass) and German (ass pearls and dog's ass).
@@eldorados_lost_searcher Sadly, we haven't got any similarly funny names for the fruit in Hungarian. Monkey's ass is hilarious.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher sadly I don't believe the official bulgarian name means anything and I've not heard any other name for the fruit used by my countryman.
I've not had them, but we used to have a soft persimmon tree, and you would have to let them set until they were almost liquid. From his description it sounds very similar
Certainly having any sort of fruit that wasn't dried, in winter, must have been fairly special and a nice treat for those able to grow them. I'd never seen the rude version of the name, only "medlar," and no one had ever explained what that line in Romeo & Juliet meant. I think one of my teachers said medlars were "just crabapples, basically." But clearly they're NOT. It's very interesting that they ripen by "rotting" as you describe - it's the kind of thing we in this modern day would recoil at, just based on the language used. If you do make a dish of some sort with them, let us know how it goes!
Not surprised that Shakespeare used it for a crude joke!
Ah yes, my favorite fruit: BungholeBerries
Medlars had a role in an episode of Midsomer Murders. I enjoyed learning more about them here!
Missed that one. I've been binge watching Midsomer Murders the last few days 😊
The word was used in "Lost in Austen," and I had no idea what they were talking about until now!
I have heard of this fruit in fact English heritage did a Victorian way video on Medlars before that never knew of them. Thank you for the history that filled in the gaps from the other video I watched
As soon as you said it ripens in winter I thought of rose hips that also are best harvested after the first frosts for maximum sweetness. Coupled with the obvious similarities in shape I was sure they were related and a quick look online confirmed it.
All in the rose family! With pears, stone fruit, and so on
Brilliant! I didn't know that name ... well, it's very descriptive! Now I've got a story to tell my students, so thanks!😊There's a former monastery close to where I live, the monks are long gone but the orchard is being maintained and it contains a medlar tree. I've always wondered what it's for or how the fruit is used. Next time I pass by I'll try to filch one. 😉
You can pick them when unripe and wait, or leave them in place then gather then when soft.
Thanks for the tip! Then I'll get some before anybody else does and wait😁 @@ModernKnight
Always a pleasure listening to Sir Jason. Thank you very much.
As always a fun little educational journey! 🌞 Seems to behave like an overripe rosehip, optically. Hildgard von Bingen also mentioned their medicinal properties in the 11th century. Seems to "behave" like sloe fruits, they are also sour and tangy, and really reach edibility only after a hood frost. I mean what works for Ice Wine......😎🎄
Oh thank you, love that info!!
it looks like a gigantic rosehip to me...
My Mum made a medlar cobbler, many years ago now. They came up, I think from one of the early farmers' markets at Cockfosters, and she'd had them as a kid from Geordie-land. I thought they were lovely.
If memory serves, I remember reading an early report about the frozen mummy called, "Ötzi." He carried some medlar in his kit, along with wood ears for wounds & starting fire. Wonder what he called it...
"mammoth's arse"
Since writing this, I checked again for fruits Ötzi carried. Apparently I associate this odd fruit with that ancient mountain man, but I was wrong.
Currently reading your book and am surprised how good it is.
I normally don't read this kind of material, but imagining it with your voice and your style of presentation makes it really enjoyable.
He wrote a book?! Gotta check that out!
@@YamiKisaraLeading the Rebellion: Questing to Succeed in Work and Life
Book by Jason Kingsley
It's about how he applies the chilvalric code to modern life.
@@PhoutianPhill thank you!
Very interesting, though a rather sensitive subject! I knew even during my school days that Shakespeare & Chaucer writings were rather bawdy, but so much of what you described here was totally lost on me. 😂
A lot is glossed over when you learn about it in school. Personally I'd have been more interested in shakespeare if the bawdy bits were discussed.
@@ModernKnightgot to blame the GCSE curriculum. It's so packed there's hardly any time to delve deeply into the...Medlar...that is Shakespeare's pros.
Time to start my open-arse jam business.
I love medlars! They are a bit of a challenge, but worth the effort to grow and harvest. They are no more difficult than growing apples, perhaps easier than pears.
That zoom in had me dying! 😂😂😂
In the Netherlands there is a saying about really bad people: "zo rot als een mispel" (as rotten as a medlar)
Never heard of this fruit, it was very interesting! We in Lithuania used to do the same for wild pears which are not edible even when ripe because of high percentage of tannins . But after bletting in straw, or naturally - when laying on the ground (some of them really rot then) for some time they are also taste quite nice.
I grew up in a Lithuanian neighborhood in New York City back in the 50s and 60s, we called them "punks" or "punkers", why I don't know as cattails were also called "punks".
Make some perry if they are tannic.
My neighbor has several of these trees in their backyard. You are right that the leaves are beautiful.
Another excellent video Jason! We've lost so much over the centuries and eons, every little bit of knowledge we can reclaim is precious. "Modern" thinking would lead us to believe those that came before us were primitive and stupid but that is far from the truth. Our ancestors might not have had the technological advantages we do, but they were no imbeciles in any sense.
Our local park had loads of these 'Medlar Trees' but we always knew them as 'Dog's Arse'. Football games could not commence until the pitch had been cleared of fallen, rotten fruit. These battles were messy and sometimes bloody.
We had a Medlar tree at my previous house. We pronounce it "Med-ler" not "Med-laaa". I only made jelly with it a couple of times because I wasn't particularly keen on having to let it rot a bit before it became edible! :-) It was quite a large tree though so it made several jars of the stuff which my family loved. Quite a gnarly old tree but it was beautiful in bloom and a lovely curiosity for friends when laden with fruit
Always thought of them like figs.
@@wobblysauce We had a large fig tree there too! Figs ripen and you don't have to wait until they are rotten to eat them 🙂It's a race between you and the wasps though with figs!
Thought for sure you were going to refer to the Kumquat fruit :)
lol
They didn't have many Citrus types in medieval Europe--native to East Asia (southern China, mostly) so most of them (except for Citron and lemons, from India) only showed up after the Age of Exploration.
Hi Jason, I've been a subscriber and a fan of you and your channel for "ages" now. after watching this video, I was so intrigued by the medlar tree that I have bought one to plant in my garden! I can't wait to taste the fruit. Merry Christmas to you and yours. I look forward to your future presentations, especially about medieval food (which I have experimented with and enjoyed immensly)!
Well that was a surprise!! Didn't know anything about the history of this fruits rude names!!
I have one of these trees in my garden. It starts to flower in winter, this year it started earlier. The fruit becomes ripe about June time.
Down here its known as a Nispero, down here being Granada, southern Spain. Ours is probably a variant of the one you showed, the skin of ours is a strong yellow. My wife likes them but they're not for me, too sweet, give me a grapefruit anytime.
Really well presented video. Happy a great Christmas. Feliz Navidad from Spain
You have loquats (Eriobotrya japonica), sometimes called "Japanese medlars" because their foliage, while evergreen, has a vaguely similar shape. In Florida they tend to ripen in March, which makes them valuable for being earlier than other fruit. I like to make them into a compote with allspice, because the fruit itself is often too mild on seedling trees.
@@erikjohnson9223 Thank you very much for pointing this out Erik. My tree is flowering well this winter I need to keep an eye on it because even the winters are very dry. They seem to be quite hardy though and don't get affected by over night freezing. Thanks once again!!
My inner 12 year old is sooooo happy at hearing all these different names for this fruit 🤣🤣
Like another commenter said, I thought you were talking about kumquats. I never imagined the name would be THAT. I have to say though, the fruit does look astonishingly like that part of the body. So I can see how it got its name.
As has been said: Fascinating. And very educational. Forgotten lore, as it were. The reason I love your channel. 🍻
Well pucker my sphincter ! The fruit taste like quince marmalade which Wilkins of Tiptree occasionally produces when they can get the fruit otherwise it comes in boxes as a " cheese" from Portugal . The fruit has several hard stones one at each point of the star .The medlar grows to a large bushy tree not exceeding 15-20 feet(5-7 M) in height and can be found in gardens of old houses where I obtained my seed . There is ( or was ) a cultivar available in the UK called " Nottingham " , a large fruited variety and companies like Chiltern Seeds may have seed . To germinate you will need to scarify the hard shell of the seed to allow moisture to reach the kernel .
The American accent when you repeated "open ASS" was the best part of the video 😂. I first started watching this channel a few years ago, but sadly forgot about it because of a mix of life and the UA-cam algorithm. Anyway, I'm so glad to see that you're still enthusiastically making videos about medieval topics that we don't normally hear about because they're not "cool" enough, like "what happens when you visit an inn" and so on. And I do mean to emphasize the enthusiasm, because that's always been my favorite part of this channel!
Nah that slow zoom after we learn the name was too much 😂
i love this channel. it really opened my eyes for how sensible and similar the medieval sociaty was, compared to ours. i hope you never stop making videos. theyre lovely
Merry Christmas and happy 2024 to you Jason. Thanks for the great videos!
I live in the US and have planted two medlar trees in the front yard. The pulp is tasty used in place of applesauce or pumpkin puree for baking (medlar pie is yummy!) though I don't care for the raw bletted fruit. The tree is gorgeous, though, and if anyone wants a pretty landscape tree, I can highly recommend them, even if you never eat them.
welcome back jason and merry christmas to you and your horses :)
And the family, too.
@@TheSuzberry yesss :D
Wonderful work on this video with the references. Particularly liked the description of the fruit itself in taste and texture. I'd only heard about them in passing before as a winter fruit only good when rotten.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Love the channel! Amazing info 🎉 Merry Christmas, dear Knight
Thanks, Jason, and I hope you had a decent Christmas mate,
Always enjoy your videos. Looking forward to what you might share with us in 2024!
Happy Christmas to you, and your family, Jason, and hoping that the new year brings you many great things!
They are quite common in Denmark. You can buy them at most nurseries.
in Italy we call them "nespole", 20-30 years ago they were very common but nowadays almost forgotten. old people loved them, but we kids didn't like them much, because of the texture I guess, and maybe because you have to wait for them to "rot" until they are edible. still the taste is quite good, but needs a bit getting used to it
Great video, kinda wish I could try this fruit. I'm surprised I kept it together with the rude name, but for some odd reason when he said "a paper bag filled with custard" I about lost it lol... great analogy to get the point across.
You make me want to open up a Chaucer book again. What a great find for me in this period of my life.
Thanks for the video Jason, I had never heard of this fruit before today. The tree actually reminds me of what apple trees of a similar size look like in winter.
They actually are related :)
And, at least in my opinion, medlars taste like applesauce with a pinch of vanilla.
I looked at a copy of Romeo and Juliet that was a side by side translation: Shakespeare on the left, modern English on the right. I happened on the page where Romeo tells Mercutio about his night spent with Juliet: “She opened to me like a medlar rose.” I look at the modern translation. On the opposite page was an ellipsis!
in my childhood there was only one tree of this old fruit in the neighborhood. it died recently. here in northwestern Croatia it is called mušmula.
"Only time and straw make the medlars ripe" Miguel Cervantes
A wonderfully humorous presentation :D Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Another informative video. Thanks and Happy Christmas to all.
I love medlars! It is one of my favorite fruits. I have a medlar tree in my backyard and the fruits ripen at the end of October or November. One thing I discovered is that once they are ripe you can freeze them and they defrost tasting perfect!
I grew up in Italy with a wonderful medlar tree. It is true that it is considered a medieval fruit.
Thank you. Have a great Christmas!
Excellent little film, thank you and a happy Christmas, my mediaeval friend!
Since you do reenact the battle of Hastings. Could you show us your Norman kit?
I have done, but not for a few years.
Several years ago, I first heard of medlars on an episode of Midsomer Murders, and I was curious enough to try and find out what they are. But even with the internet, I could find very little.
THANK YOU for this video! I wonder if they're related to persimmons...
I love this guy. Every time a new video comes out it’s exciting to watch.
I always wondered what they were like. Thanks for the info. Very interesting and well presented.
Thank you. I always enjoy your videos :) I had the first fruit of my medler this year. It is interesting to find out about some of the history of the fruit
amazing Medieval history content as always.. thank you
Our pleasure!
I have heard of medlar jelly…Agatha Christie mentioned it in one of her earlier novels, if memory serves.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Mr Kingsley. I love your videos, several have made me chuckle, but these were outright laughs! I love when a man is talking awkwardly about a sensitive subject barely able to keep his snickers in! LOL Marry me, Mr Kingsley!
Saw the title. Clicked immediately. "This'll be good!", I thought. This channel never disappoints... :)
Heh - I guessed you meant the medlar (sorry, need to readjust my halo ...) - but didn't know those wonderful rude names! I'll refrain from observing that snowflakes-as-we-know-them couldn't have been very plentiful in yon medieval times ...
I wonder if I can grow a little medlar in my tiny back garden ... but then again. South Wales isn't known for cold winters - they're generally just wet, and more wet and extra wet, just for fun - so letting them rot might be a bit of a challenge.
Thanks for this wonderful video, which allows em to wish you and yours and all your horses a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We have one (Gloucestershire), and put the fruit in the freezer - get them out later, and they blet as they defrost.
I wonder if the Colorado mountains would be a good place to try?
Most of our soil is rocks or clay, though.
Great for pumpkins!
I have a UK 1960s book with a recipe for medlar wine… so was in common use then.
Great video. I wonder how many other foods have been forgotten by history.
I can imagine the breadiness comes from yeasts growing on it as it rots
Very interesting! One of the old and forgotten fruit that I know should be picked after first frosts is a Blackthorn or Prunus Spinosa. It's super sour and tart unless it's been through the process of freezing, which makes it mushy and "sweet", or more like a mushy plum.
"Coming up next, we'll be harvesting our open-ass fruit here at Longmeadow." [Gardner's World Theme intensifies]
Wow, before you said the name, I thought of my mum saying she loved the rotten medlar. Picked them in the village where she lived. Especially loved them when she was pregnant!
RE: Cabbage stalk. Actually, many people eat the core stalk of a cabbage head much like a carrot (often with salt) raw, after cutting the leafy parts off for cooking or slaw.
Thank you very much, Jason, for this video about medlar! I just love medlars, we grow many medlar trees in our garden, sometimes we make medlar jam and also medlar spirit/brandy (it has very unique pleasant scent), but the best option is to eat medlars right from the tree, great vitamin boost during winter season! In Czech language we call them "mišpule", quite simillar to latin "mespilus", but I think sound of this word is like perfect description of how you eat medlar fruit. Great video!
We have a simular fruit here in America called a persimmon. If not fully ripe end very soft they are horrendously astringent and bitter but when fully ripe are very sweet and tasty. By the look of the tree and the fruit I'd guess the trees were related.
Thank you for such a an informative video! Hope I can find one here in the U.S.
Merry Christmas and Happy holidays to your and yours!
Same to you!
Another great video, thank you sir.
We need more of you! 😊
After I retired, I took a couple of linguistics classes just for fun. One concentrated on the various sub-variations of English. The prof and our text said that many of the US words and pronunciations are from an earlier form of English spoken when the Pilgrims and Puritans left. Since then, our two forms of English have evolved more or less separately. At least before movies, TV and the Internet. One example is the "intrusive r" used in the UK and not in the US. My course said that it was used mainly when a word was followed by a vowel. I wonder if that is at least part of the difference between Arse (UK) and Ass (US). Jason pronounced it US-style from Shakespeare. Google says that the "r" was inserted to distinguish "ass" the donkey from "arse" the bottom. Most of us in the US use "ass" for both a donkey and a tush, plus a few other colorful sayings I won't mention here. Love to know whether that is correct or is it the "instrusive r". If anyone knows, I'd love a reply. Thanks. Really enjoyed the video.
Pretty sure it's neither, actually. The 'r' is original (Old English usually spelt it 'ears', Middle English 'ars' or 'ers', and they didn't really do silent letters back then - not silent 'r', anyway), and my understanding is that it was actually lost in the U.S., when people speaking one regional dialect (can't remember which I'm afraid) stopped pronouncing the /r/ in all words where it came before /s/. Some of these 'r'-less forms then got borrowed into standard American English. This is why you have, for instance, 'cuss', derived from 'curse', and 'bust', derived from 'burst'. For some reason, the original form of this particular word died out in favour of the 'r'-less form. Maybe it was considered a euphemism for a while, hence was acceptable to use in more situations?
Anyway in Britain, in the non-rhotic dialects where the /r/ at the end of syllables not followed by a vowel was always lost/vocalised to schwa - but with changes to the preceding vowel - we have a pronunciation without the /r/ itself but still with its effect on the 'a' - long vowel /a:/, rather than short /æ/ used in the word for donkey (although the American version is increasingly used in Britain too). In rhotic British accents/dialects where the 'r' is still clearly pronounced, though, the word is still preserved pronounced with its original consonant cluster.
Interesting. Thanks. Language facinates me.
From 6:05 to 6:27 in this video now I see that referenced line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet makes more sense.
I knew you were going to talk about medlars. Centuries ago, when I was a student, my landlady had a medlar bush by her front door - what were they thinking when they planted it? 😉 Anyway, nice to see someone actually get their chops around an openarrrse.
We have this fruit in north parts of Iran, they grow wild, and funny enough there is a common belief that these fruits can cure diarrhea and may make you constipated
The way the medlar ripens reminds me of the wild persimmons we used to pick when I was a kid. You had to wait for a hard frost before they were good to eat. Before that, the alum in them made the fruit very bitter. After a good frost, they were delicious!
There's still an expression in modern French originating from the 18th century, that hints medlars were an emergency food only, "Des nèfles !" or "On vous donnera des nèfles !" (Medlars! / They'll give you medlars!) meaning "close to nothing" or "to pay somebody peanuts."
fascinating, thanks