A 1919 photo of a Westphalian farm woman in traditional dress with a large loaf of pumpernickel bread under each arm.
26 August 2022
Pumpernickel is a dark rye bread originally produced in the Westphalia and Hanover regions of northern Germany. The name, as one might expect, is borrowed from German, and the German name is most likely a compound of pumper (fart) + nickel (demon, goblin); pumper is a dialectal and echoic word representing the sound of a fart, and nickel is a hypocoristic form of Nicholas, as in the name Old Nick for Satan. The bread, which contains a high percentage of bran, is known to cause flatulence, like all foods high in dietary fiber. Hence the name.
But evidently “farting demon” isn’t a fun-enough etymology, and a commonly told false etymology arose early in the word’s life in English. The story dates to the first recorded use of pumpernickel in English in Thomas Lediard’s 1738 travelogue, The German Spy:
During our Supper, having heard of a Sort of Bread, which is their chief Food in this Country, called Pompernickel, I had the Curiosity to call for a Slice of it, which being hewed with a Hatchet, from a large Loaf of at least a Bushel, was accordingly served, on a wooden Trencher, with great Form: But I had enough of the Looks of it, not to be tempted to taste it. The Colour of it is a dark brown, pretty near approaching to Black, and by the Hew, one would take it to be a Compound of some very filthy Materials. Upon Enquiry, I found it was made of Rye, coarsely ground, with all the Bran left in it, and that there had not been the greatest Care taken, to sever it from the Pieces of Straw, Hair, and other Nastiness, which had been swept with the Corn from the threshing Floor. I was curious to know the Etymology of the strange Name they gave it; by my Enquiry out-reached the Sphere of our Landlord’s Knowledge, and I had remained in Ignorance of this important Secret, had not a Fellow, who took Care to inform us he was the School-master of the Village, laid down his Inch of Pipe, and solv’d the Matter, in the following Manner: “A Frenchman (said he) travelling thro’ this Country, and asking for Bread had a Slice of this (for we have no other) Sort, presented him; Upon which he cried out ça est bon pour Nicol (or, as our Parish-Priest interprets it, that is good for Nicolas) a Name, it seems, he had given his Horse; which Words, in Imitation of our Betters, we have engrafted into our Language, and thence produced the barbarous Word Pompernickel.”
Later versions of the story have Napoleon as the Frenchman in question, a classic example of a quote magnet. It’s a cute story, but even with Napoleon’s celebrity power, it isn’t as good as the truth.
Another early use of pumpernickel in English is in a 1743 drinking song, Beef and Butt Beer, Against Mum and Pumpernickle, which associates the bread with then reigning King George II, who was born in Hanover. The opening stanzas call for the exorcism of German influence from the court and tout the superiority of English culture:
In good King G——‘s golden Days,
Whoe’er advis’d the King, Sir,
To give H——r the Bays,
Deserv’d a hempen String, Sir.
For this is true, I will maintain,
Give H——r away, Sir,
Or whatsoever K——g shall reign,
Will ne’er have a happy Day, Sir.Old England has been always thought
The Land of Milk and Honey;
And H——r not worth a Groat,
Till fill’d with English Money.
From whence this Truth I will maintain,
Give, &c.Who that drinks Calvert’s Butt so clear,
For muddy Mum wou’d stickle?
Or to our English Beef prefer
Sour Grout and * Pumpernickle?
Then who will not this Truth maintain,
Give, &c.
Butt in this context means a cask or barrel.
The marginal note reads:
* German brown Bread.
The marginal note indicates that the word was not yet common enough to go undefined. Calvert was an English brewer of porter and mum a style of German wheat beer.
Sources:
American Heritage Dictionary, fifth edition, 2018, s.v. pumpernickel, n., nickel, n.
Beef and Butt Beer, Against Mum and Pumpernickle. H—n—r Scrubs, or, a Bumper to Old England,—Huzza. A Drinking Song. London: B.C., 1743. Eighteenth Century Collections Online.
Lediard, Thomas. The German Spy. London: J. Mechell and J. Bailey, 1738, 5. Google Books.
Liberman, Anatoly. Word Origins and How We Know Them. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005, 33.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2007, s.v. pumpernickel, n.
Photo credit: Heinrich Genau, 1919. Public domain image.