Dameyo

The Making of Iranian Caviar

// June 13th, 2009 // General

Well, Iranian caviar is considered to be the world’s most exquisite delicacies. The price for the cheapest one is around 70,000 baht.

Although caviar might seem to be something quintessentially Russian, the word caviar is not, the native Russian term being ikra. Caviar first came into English in the 16th century, probably by way of French and Italian, which borrowed it from Turkish havyar.

The source of the Turkish word is apparently an Iranian dialectal form related to the Persian word for “egg,” khāyah, and this in turn goes back to the same Indo-European root that gives us the English words egg and oval.

This rather exotic etymology is appropriate to a substance that is not to everyone’s taste, giving rise to Shakespeare’s famous phrase, “’twas caviary to the general,” the general public, that is.