![\"rhubarb](\"http:\/\/tinkyweisblat.com\/_ourgrandmotherskitchens\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/rhubarb-stalksweb-300x225.jpg\" "\\"rhubarb")
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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s getting warm in <\/span>New England<\/span> so this will be my last rhubarb post for this year. Sigh\u2026\u2026\u2026 For my grand finale I thought I\u2019d explore the word \u201crhubarb\u201d as well as the plant.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A friend recently asked me whether rhubarb didn\u2019t have more than one meaning. I did a little research\u2014and was he ever right! When you\u2019ve said rhubarb, you\u2019ve said a mouthful in more ways than one.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other foods may enjoy one or two definitions beyond their edible ones. A peach is a pretty girl, and something peachy is just swell. We blow a raspberry to show disrespect. And spinach can mean \u201chumbug\u201d as part of the phrase \u201cgammon and spinach\u201d or all by itself, as in the immortal Irving Berlin lyric, \u201cI say it\u2019s spinach and the hell with it!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rhubarb, however, has so much personality that its figurative uses almost rival its culinary ones.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Beyond its meaning as food, rhubarb is a theatrical phrase used by centuries of actors in crowd scenes. In Shakespeare\u2019s day and beyond, extras onstage would intone \u201crhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb\u201d to simulate muttering, particularly angry muttering. I like to think that the peasants coming after the monster with torches in the classic film Frankenstein<\/em> were using the word, although I have no proof of this.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps because of its slightly harsh syllables rhubarb also connotes a fight, usually a spirited one. In the mid-20th century the word became attached to baseball. It was used most famously by colorful sportscaster Red Barber to describe an altercation on the field\u2014between teams, between players and umpires, or between players and fans. Barber called Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, \u201cthe rhubarb patch.\u201d Apparently, the Dodgers had a strong, tart flavor.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to the Oxford English Dictionary<\/em>, rhubarb is sometimes used to mean \u201cnonsense.\u201d (Perhaps Irving Berlin should have written, \u201cI say it\u2019s RHUBARB and the hell with it!\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n
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\nFirst of all, of course, rhubarb is a reddish, stringy plant that originated in <\/span>China<\/span>. People either love or hate its strong, tart flavor. (I\u2019m in the love camp, as you may have guessed!)<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThe genesis of the word \u201crhubarb\u201d comes from its presence along the banks of the <\/span>Volga<\/span> <\/span>River<\/span> in <\/span>Siberia<\/span>; it is a combination of \u201cRha\u201d (the Greek word for the <\/span>Volga<\/span>) and the word \u201cbarbarum,\u201d or barbarian. (Obviously those who named the plant were less than enthusiastic about it. I don\u2019t find it at all barbaric.) <\/span><\/p>\n
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