The image was emailed to me, with no credit for creation or source except for the incorporated watermark, but it did prompt me to look up the word:
Inherited from Middle French menu, from Old French menu, from Latin minūtus (“minute, tiny”)...
The Google AI explains a little more:
In French, menu has several meanings, including "small" and "detailed". The use of menu as a noun meaning "a list of food" probably came from the "detailed" sense of the adjective, since a menu is most often a detailed list.
It could also be because food options used to be posted on a board outside or above a counter, but a menu is a small version of the list of delights on offer.
ReplyDeleteOne of the useless things I learned from an old filmstrip about dating etiquette I watched in Home Economics class is that it used to be traditional for a man to recommend a dish as a way of subtly telling his date what he could afford.
ReplyDeleteI think that stayed with me because of a Kids In The Hall sketch in which Cabbage Head tells his date she'll find an appetizer very filling, loudly adding, "It's $4.95!"