Re: refried beans [was: Re: Refrigerator]

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:10:59 -0700, Bob Cunningham
<exw6sxq@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> On Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:06:04 +0200, Einde O'Callaghan
><einde.ocallaghan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>>Bob Cunningham wrote:
>>>  On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:15:37 +0200, Einde O'Callaghan
>>> <einde.ocallaghan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Bob Cunningham wrote:
>>>>> (Crossposted to alt.usage.english.)
>>>>>
>>>>>  On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:22:08 +0100, Frederick Williams
>>>>> <frederick.williams2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote [in alt.languages.english]:
>>>>>
>>>>>> What is the significance of the prefix "re" in the word
"refrigerator"?
>>>>> As you probably know, the prefix "re-" occurs in quite a few English
>>>>> words where its meanings of "again, back" or "away" don't seem to
>>>>> offer a satisfactory reason.
>>>>>
>>>> The fact that the current meaning of a word doesn't contain the
concept 
>>>> of "again-ness" doesn't mean that it didn't originate from the latin 
>>>> root meaning repitition. An example is the word "reduce" . Today
there 
>>>> is no sense of repetition here but originally it did come from a
Latin 
>>>> word meaning "to lead back".
>>> 
>>> But did Latin "refrigeratus" or "refrigerare" ever have any
>>> connotation that could be inferred from any modern definition of
>>> English "re-" besides intensification?
>>> 
>>According to the Online Etymology dictionary the Latin root meant 
>>"mitigation of heat", particularly in the context of illness - i.e. 
>>reduction of fever, in other words "making cool again".
>
>That sounds good, but getting back to "refried" in "refried beans",
>which is said to be a mistranslation of Spanish "refritos", which is
>said to not mean "refried", but "fried well", it seems the
>misconception is so widespread that it may outlast the correct
>meaning.  As I've said in another posting, it seems possible that the
>time may come when refried beans are really fried twice, because
>people will have heard so persistently that they were fried twice that
>they will have started frying them twice.
>
>Googling on "refried beans" seems to come up with more statements that
>"refried" in "refried beans" means "fried twice" than with
>explanations of what really appears to be the true meaning, "fried
>well".

All I can get by googling is that the beans are cooked twice:
boiled as beans normally are, then mashed up and fried. 

According to http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/refritos,
refrito can mean either "over-fried  (demasiado frito)" or
"re-fried  (frito de nuevo)", which seems to mean newly fried,
which refritos are, after boiling.



-- 
   ************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
) *************
   *       Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow         *
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