In which I teach the French word for "okra" to the veg stand guy

[Recursion]

So the veg stand on my block is run by three brothers from Morocco. Two are totally chill and the third is kind of a gigantic moron. He was working today when I came by looking for some okra to go with the brisket I'm smoking tonight. The French word for okra is "gombo", which I assume is where the word "gumbo" comes from. At any rate:

Veg Stand Guy: Hello friend! How are you? (This is the extent of his English but he is extraordinarily proud of it)

Me: Bien, merci! Avez-vous des gombos?

VSG: Digambons? (His French is, if anything, worse)

Me: Gombo. Des gombos. (Tries to pantomime what an okra looks like, realizes this is futile, and google translates for the Arabic) Des بامية ("bamiyat" )

VSG: GOMBO? بامية est "GOMBO"? Laisse moi voir (he takes my phone and begins laughing uncontrollably) GOMBO! GOMBOOOOO!!!

Me: Oui, ainsi, si vous en avez...

VSG: GOOOOOOOOMMMMMMBOOOOOOOO!!!!!! (Making odd Godzilla-like gestures)

Me: Ah, merde...

VSG: Is wrong month for GOMBO, ami! C'est pour été.

Me: Alors. Au rev...

VSG: GOMBO!!!!!!!

[rampartc]

1. okra is indeed an ingredient of mom's gumbo

and the reason for the name.

I might advise not trying to communicate in a language that your lister knows "worse" than English.

the new girl at the grocery asked me "what is that?"

I told her "asparagus."

she dutifully checked her list and came back with a puzzled "we don't have any sparagus, could they call it something else?"

[sl8]

2. I've got a spare agus lying around, if you still need one. n/t

[Alliepoo]

5. You're cracking me up, sl8!

So funny!! Thanks for the chuckle!

[Alliepoo]

4. Sparagus???

Hahahahahahahaha!!!! That one is too good!!

[Recursion]

7. The Swahili is "ngombo" or "ki-ngombo", which I assume is the origin

Actually I was kind of surprised the Arabic wasn't "gombo", because they share a lot of loanwords. My family gumbo recipe uses filé or sassafras to thicken it and leaves the okra out. But we also use crawdads instead of shrimp.

[Recursion]

8. OK, this is weird, the Choctaw word for sassafras is "kombo"

I now need to get to the bottom of this...

[3catwoman3]

12. How do you happen to know that...

...interesting detail?

[Recursion]

13. It was mentioned in an etymological dictionary

as a possible antecedent for "gumbo".

[3catwoman3]

14. Thnx. I thought perhaps you might be...

...of Choctaw heritage.

I love etymology, and pretty much anything to do with words and their usage.

[rampartc]

10. mom knew of fil but i don't remember her using it

I think most creole gumbos I've had do use file.

crawfish is a good ingredient, along with crabs and shrimp, but I'm not sure what a "crawdad" is.

gumbo sounds good on ash Wednesday. maybe with about a dozen grilled oysters ……..

[lastlib]

9. If you still need asparagus, you might check with Louie Gohmert's office.....

...I heard someone's casting a lot of it around him.......

[Alliepoo]

3. Oh my!! Thank you, Recursion!

You started my morning with quite a visual and a big laugh!!!

[CurtEastPoint]

6. I choked coffee at Godzilla! LOLLLLLLLLLLLL!

[Recursion]

11. I damn near dropped the brisket

He's a strange guy