• Dasus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Yeah, it was the sap of marsh mallow that the Egyptians used.

      Saying that doesn’t mean that they think Egyptians used the English word “marshmallow”.

      Edit but it likely was something like their words for those things, which then got translated again and again and again.

      The original connotation didn’t reach us. My native language calls the modern sweet “foam candy” (vaahtokarkki)

          • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            Apparently it’s based on the fact that the colour reminded people of the bacon used in mouse traps. Although it’s a bit unclear, it could also play into things that the first company to sell marshmallows en masse in Germany used mice-shaped ones.