115 Inventing a New Word: Apisoir



Wine writer Micheal Alberty was thinking of a way to promote the “terroir” of local honey so, naturally, he coined a new word, “apisoir.” Find out what happened when he tried to get this word into Wikipedia as well as the reasons he thinks we should support local honey. You heard it first on Root Simple! During the podcast Michael mentions:

You can reach Michael via his Facebook page and his email is [email protected]. Apisoir, apisoir, apisoir!

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14 Comments

  1. Fascinating episode! I like the idea and now I wonder why we haven’t seen this touted sooner. Honestly, I’m surprised with the local food movements.

    So weird about Wikipedia.

    • Hi Misti. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I have tip my hat to that crusty Wiki editor because if he had left the apisoir page up, that might have been the end of it!

      Cheers,
      Michael Alberty

    • Oh no, he was very clear about why he was taking the page down. I think he may have even used all caps to type “hoax.” I look forward to chatting with him again if apisoir makes it into the OED.

      Cheers,
      Michael Alberty

      PS I may have to steal your pissoir-bad honey idea!

  2. Good evening- quick question. I subscribe through ITunes and this episode isn’t there. Not sure if it’s an issue in my end but thought I’d let you know

  3. I feel like Michael Alberty should involve some native French speakers in the conversation to see how they respond to the term. French is my second language, but even to my anglophone ear “apisoir” is uncomfortably close to ” a pissoir”, both in writing and when spoken. “Terroir” is a French word, so my suggestion is that he get some French input to design the word he seeks. Or, how about “terroir du miel” (“terroir of honey”)?

    • I have to agree with Michael W. I am from Quebec and have spoken french all my life. Reading the word apisoir makes me cringe. I hope a better alternative is found.

      here we might say something along the lines of «miel du terroir» or «abeille du terroir». Or simply «miel du Québec» and then on the label it would be specified from which region it came from.

    • Reminds me of the bees stenciled into some urinals as an aiming guide–I heard, but don’t know if this is really true, that’s this is based on a Latin pun, “apis” as in “a piss.”

    • Thank you all for the great input. “Terroir” was created by the French drawing from Latin, similar to what I’m doing with apis. I’m about to head out on a trip, but I’ll catch up with this on Sunday.

    • The Greek for bee is “melissa” and honey is “meli”. How about “melissoir” or “meloir”?

    • Mr. Homegrown, you are not mistaken. Both bee and fly stencils are used in urinals in France, Germany and who knows where else. True, it’s a good pun but the main reason it was done was to reduce splatter. It seems that folks like to aim at things!

    • Nicole–thanks for letting me know this–you are right and I have a technical mystery to solve this morning.

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