Word of the Week: February 5, 2001
Biltong and Beyond

Biltong is a South African word for jerky, which is dried meat. The word comes from South African Dutch bil ("rump") + tong ("tongue"). Before you set your imagination to work trying to figure out whether the stuff is made from rump roasts and wildebeest tongues, I'll tell you: It can be made from practically any meat. But mostly it is made from the rump portions of four-footed mammals (where we get "rump roasts"). When dried, it supposedly looks like a "smoked neat's tongue" (so says the Oxford English Dictionary).

Now I had no idea what a neat was, but being charitable and cautious, I looked it up. To my shame I discovered that neat is a good old English word for any bovine or ox-like beast. Neat is archaic, which made me feel better about not knowing it. But this discourse isn't about my stampedes through the dictionary, so I'll just leave it at this: If you ever get the chance to try biltong, I can tell you that it is really neat.

Words of the Week are written by Dr. Jacques A. Bailly.