Motherland of French Manicure Is America + 5 Other “French” Things That Have Nothing To Do With France
Whenever you add “French” to any word it works like magic and turns the thing you were talking about into something way more elegant and attractive. But did you know that many of the things that are called “French” have nothing to do with France?
Nexter.org made a little research about this and here is what we found.
French toast
Source: Martha Stewart
People were enjoying some classical French toast way before France was even on the map. Have you ever heard about the Apicius? Well, this is a culinary book from Ancient Rome and this is where the first mention of French toast is found. Romans loved some good fried bread soaked in egg and milk.
And only in the 17th century in England, the name “French toast” first appeared. Moreover, French people have a different name for it – Pain Perdu (spoiled bread).
French manicure
Source: Frenchly
The French manicure actually appeared in America and was invented by the creator of ORLY brand Jeff Pink in 1976. One Hollywood producer wanted a nail polish that would look good on every actress and asked Pink to come up with one. And he did.
After that, Jeff went to Paris and pained models’ nails using his new invention and Paris fell in love with it. And only after that it became popular all over the world and got a name “French manicure”. Originally, it was called just Natural Nail.
French braid
Source: Popsugar
Just as French toast French braid existed long before France itself, 6,000 years to be accurate. And, actually, nobody knows why is it called French but there is a theory that since France is a capital of the fashion industry, anything popular was automatically considered to be French.
French bulldog
Source: Pinterest
Actually, the motherland of Bulldogs ancestors is England. They left it in the 19th century due to the Industrial Revolution and came to France. People in France loved these little guys so much that they started to keep them as pets.
Everybody calls them Frenchies because they were first registered in France. At least, it is believed to be so.
French press
Source: Blue Bottle Coffee
The history of the origin of the French press is quite vague but what we can say for sure is that it was patented by an Italian man in 1929 and improved by another Italian man – Faliero Bondanini in 1958.
So, basically, it is mostly Italian. Also, espresso is the most popular drink in France to this day and it is prepared using large coffee machines and not a French-press.
French kiss
Source: Playbuzz
And, finally, the thing we’ve all been waiting for – French kiss. And as you might have already guessed it is not French at all. Interesting fact – only in 2014 Le Petit Robert, the French version of Merriam-Webster added a word that describes the French kiss – ’galocher’ to their dictionary and it that means ’kissing with the tongue’.
In Britain, French people were considered to be very passionate and inventive lovers, so British people named the most sensual kiss of all “French kiss”.
What do you think about it? Which one was more surprising one for you?
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