Bacon — From Old French to English | etymologist.ai
bacon
/ˈbeɪkən/·noun·c. 1330 CE, attested in the Cursor Mundi as 'bacoun'·Established
Origin
From Frankish *bakō meaning 'back' of the pig, through Old French bacon and into Middle English by the 14th century, the word's anatomy is baked into its name — back and bacon share the same Proto-Germanic root, separated only by conquest and cooking.
Definition
Cured and often smoked meat taken from the back and sides of a pig, prepared by salting or smoking and typically sliced thin for cooking.
The Full Story
Old Frenchc. 1300 CEwell-attested
The English word 'bacon' enters the language via Old French 'bacon', meaning a side of cured pork or salted/smoked back meat. The Old French form derives from Frankish *bakō or *bakkon, reconstructed as the Germanic source meaning 'back meat' or 'haunch', related to the back or hind portion of a pig. This Frankish term connects to Proto-Germanic *bakaz, meaning 'back', from Proto-Indo-European *bak- associated with the back or spine. The word
Did you know?
The phrase 'save one's bacon' — meaning to escape harm — dates to 17th-century English and treats bacon not as breakfast food but as a cured slab of stored meat worth protecting from theft or spoilage. More strikingly, the word 'back' (as in your spine) and 'bacon' are cognates from the same Proto-Germanic root: OldHigh German 'bahho' meant both the back of the body and the cured back-cut of pork. When yousay 'back
'bacho' (back, ham, hind quarter), Old Saxon 'baco' (back), and Old English 'bæc' (back of the body). These Germanic forms all point to Proto-Germanic *bakaz. The semantic core throughout is the dorsal/back region of the animal. The famous 'bring home the bacon' idiom traces to the Dunmow Flitch tradition in Essex, England, dating at least to the 12th century, where a flitch (side) of bacon was awarded to couples who could swear to marital harmony for a year and a day. Other English words sharing Germanic root kinship with bacon include 'back' itself, and cognates in modern German 'Backe' (cheek, also a dialectal term for back meat) and Dutch 'bakken'. Key roots: *bak- (Proto-Indo-European: "back, rear physical region"), *bakaz (Proto-Germanic: "back, rear of the body or animal; source of Old English 'bæc', Old High German 'bacho', Old Saxon 'baco'"), *bakō (Frankish (reconstructed): "back meat, haunch; the immediate Romance-layer source via Frankish-influenced Old French").