Origin of the Word: Curry

Many people in Europe and in American refer to Indian food as curry. For example Jamie Oliver's recipe book has an entire chapter on curries. Or as I was browsing Barnes and Noble a few days ago I found a book with 60 curry recipes. But where does this curry word come from?

Well, curry is a word that is used to describe Indian food (food from India), but there is no set guideline as to what makes a curry. That means curries don't need to use any certain powder or ingredient but that it has its origins from South Asian, specifically India. Okay that's nice, but what about the word, why do we call Indian food curry?

Glad you asked, there has always been a great debate on the origins of the word curry. The most accepted is that the word curry comes from a South Indian word, "Kari", which means spiced sauces, in India’s oldest living language, Tamil. Wow, that makes sense, so we got the word curry or curries from India after the Brits went there... well maybe. There has been some evidence that proves the word was used by Anglicans before going to India, but this evidence doesn't tie into it's current usage, i.e cury but was based off the french word "cuire" which meant to cook or broil.

The use of the word curry and curries became popular in the 1980's when a handful of Indian restaurants served curries. This caught on by those Western Europeans with bad dentistry (I'm talking about you England) and it made curry a household name. Curry was a symbol of a favorite eat out and take away item and helped add perspective to the concept of Indian food in western Europe, as well as add to the few decent foods found in London.

Cheers,
Curry-Dude