My first thought when I saw this prompt was that I would just pop on over to Dunkin this morning and grab myself a donut for fun. Instead, because I slept in and didn’t have time to get a donut, I’m going to tell you all how donuts were invented and how we came to shorten the word the way we do!
There are two theories as to the origin of the popular doughnut. The first claims that they originated from a treat made by Dutch settlers in New York (then New Amsterdam) called “olykoek” in the early 19th century. They did not have the hole in them at the beginning, it was just a circle of fried dough, but a man named Hanson Gregory claimed to have started punching holes in the dough when he was sixteen, passing on his newfound technique to his mother, who popularized it. The other theory, however, states that the origin of the doughnut is not Dutch, but English. Following the death of her husband, Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale wrote a cookbook including a recipe for “dow nuts” which had been given to her by a friend credited as “Mrs. Fordham”. Neither theory has been proven definitely to be true (based on my limited research), but both are interesting!
As for the etymology, it appears that the first use of “dough-nut” in print was used by American author Washington Irving in his 1808 History of New York. Some theories suggest that his reference was not to the doughnuts we know and love today, but to doughnut holes, hence “dough nut“. The shortened version appeared first in print in 1900 and a New York doughnut machine company appeared to have used the butchered spelling to make the word easier to read and pronounce to attract non-English speakers to their product. The Oxford English Dictionary says that donut is a primarily American spelling, and its popularization after the 1950s may have been caused by the Dunkin Donuts franchise. The two spellings are now used interchangeably in American English. I had no idea that “donut” was restricted to the U.S. until today, that’s really neat! My spellcheck doesn’t seem to think I’m in the U.S., apparently (it corrects “donut” but not “donuts”?).
I think that was a fun history lesson! Let me know what your favorite place to get donuts is!! As a proud and loyal Nutmegger, I have to say Dunkin, there’s no other option for me. Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!
Adventures in Adulting 