Mesomerica, squirrels, and puffy leather bags: an etymological Easter basket

Did you get any chocolate bunnies or eggs in your Easter basket—or just a bunch of black jellybeans as some sort of April Fools’ prank?

Well, I’ve got you covered with plenty of timely etymological goodies for this double holiday.

Chocolate comes from the Nahuatl (Aztec) chocolatl. Bunny is a diminutive of bun, which first referred to a squirrel. Egg, way back when, may have meant bird, which I guess solves the age-old riddle. Easter is indeed related to east. The origin of basket comes up, well, kind of empty. And the Ancient Romans thought of a fool as having puffed up cheeks like leather bag.

Enjoy these posts from my archives, and save those black jellybeans for me. I rather like them. No joke.

m ∫ r ∫