I overheard two youngsters in a Dublin cafe the other day discussing the following night's entertainment. She suggested to him that he meet her in the Buttery at seven o'clock, which immediately suggested to me that she, at least, was a student at Trinity; the Buttery is the college bar. I wondered if she knew where the word buttery originated. I remember asking a group of students one day, and all of them thought that once upon a time beyond recall, the old university stored its butter supply there. Wrong answer. The word comes from the Anglo-French boterie, which in turn comes from the Latin butta, a cask.
Another room whose name often misleads people is pantry. Some think, and who'd blame them, that the room is so called because in it one may store pans and pots and the like. But pantry was once the room in which the bread was stored; it was small and dark and well-protected against mice and rats. Its origin lies in the Old French paneterie, itself from Latin panis, bread.
And what about larder? You'd be right in thinking that in the old days lard was stored here. Lard is the Old French lard, bacon, a word which comes from Latin Lardum or laridum. Not far from where I live an old woman once told me it is a sovereign cure for warts. Bacon (ha!) had the same idea. In 1620 old Roger wrote: "She got a Peece of Lard with the skin on and rubbed the Warts all ouer with the skin on."
Game birds were hung in the larder, the idea being that somehow or other the lard would keep them warm, and so bring them earlier to the desired state of being "high".
Partridges were plentiful long ago. The word has a rude origin. The Middle English was partrichy and that came from Old French perdris, from Latin perdrix, from Greek perdrix, which in turn very probably originated in the Greek verb perdomai, to break wind. The verb may refer to the bird's cry when it is startled.
When the first pheasants appear on restaurant menus we known that dreary winter is upon us. It won't be long now. The word is from Middle English, from Anglo-French fesaunt, from Old French fesan, from Latin phasanus, the Phasian bird. The Phasis was a river of Colchis from where the beautiful bird is said to have spread to the west to grace our winter tables. Sloe gin and pheasant. Winter has its consolations.