I only know one of them...the salamander got its name 'cause it's a mythical creature that lives in fire. Yeah, I know, it's a stretch. (Answer courtesy of Alton Brown on "Iron Chef America, if memory serves)....
Can I dubs mandoline? I've been working on it but the etymology is not clear at all so far. Okay, I'm not sure etymology is the right word. I haven't found out yet why they call it a mandoline, but I am FAR from giving up. Facts can be as exciting as fantasy! But I have to go to bed now. Good night! Back to work on this tomorrow.
Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium. ~ Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence.----Seneca
Saucer - because it is a dish that catches and/or holds sauce (among other things)
Mandoline - because the cutting bed "looks" like the many strings on a mandolin (there's a fancy word that describes words based on a similar appearance ... can't think of it).
Spider - because the mesh basket on it used for straining or skimming hot oil is thought to resemble a spider's web.
Salamander - scottielvr is on the right track - the salamander mythology is that the lizard comes out of the fire, or from the burning embers. In the restaurant kitchen, a salamander is a metal box with gas burners that bathes food in flames to glaze, carmelize, brown, or simply melt cheese.
Organic - I think this has come up here before, means "carbon-based" but people use the word to mean "all-natural" source or growing method or composition.
Pitcher - Middle English picher, from Old French pichier, from Medieval Latin bicarius - goblet
Trivet - probably from French, tri- (Latin) for three, plus pes, pedis, pied - footed, feet = three-legged
djm
I'd rather be atop the foothills than beneath them.
I'm handing off my 'spoilsport' trophy, which is actually a balled-up wet blanket, to djm, and going off to watch "Good Eats" some more. (Alton Brown's a serious spoilsport. But he's just so adorable).
It's only a trivet if it has three feet on the bottom. Technically, if it's one of those things with cork on the bottom or something, it's a hot plate, not a trivet. And the ones with four legs -- quadrivets?
Charlie Whorfin Woods
"Our work puts heavy metal where it belongs -- as a music genre and not a pollutant in drinking water." -- Prof Ali Miserez.
I visited a "tourist trap" old house where they claimed the word "pitcher" came from a leather jug that was covered with "pitch" (pine resin) to make it watertight.
Charlene wrote:I visited a "tourist trap" old house where they claimed the word "pitcher" came from a leather jug that was covered with "pitch" (pine resin) to make it watertight.
That's the trouble with touristy type places. They think nothing of tossing any old story at you. Not like getting it from the web .... er .....
djm
I'd rather be atop the foothills than beneath them.
Charlene wrote:I visited a "tourist trap" old house where they claimed the word "pitcher" came from a leather jug that was covered with "pitch" (pine resin) to make it watertight.
That's the trouble with touristy type places. They think nothing of tossing any old story at you. Not like getting it from the web .... er .....
djm
Come now, are you insinuating that the people who run a replica of Anne Hathaway's cottage in Victoria, BC, would stretch the truth just a teeny bit??
They had a whole list of things. It was more interesting when they had costumed guides showing you around rather than a recording to listen to on a self-guided tour. I've seen a similar list on the web.
One of the others was:
The reason for having a canopy over the bed was to keep the critters who nested in the thatched roof from falling down on you as you were sleeping.
Roach clips are called that because pot holder was already taken.
djm wrote:
Organic - I think this has come up here before, means "carbon-based" but people use the word to mean "all-natural" source or growing method or composition.
In old chemistry it was thought that some compounds could be made by man and were mineral type compounds and that others could be made by living organisms. So I believe that organic pre dates the idea of carbon compounds and was closer to meaning provided by nature.
The name "organic" is a historical name, dating back to 19th century, when it was believed that organic compounds could only be synthesised in living organisms through vis vitalis - the "life-force". The theory that organic compounds were fundamentally different than those that were "inorganic", that is, not synthesized through a life-force, was disproven with the synthesis of urea, an organic compound, from potassium cyanate and ammonium sulfate by Friedrich Wöhler.
"Be not deceived by the sweet words of proverbial philosophy. Sugar of lead is a poison."
I've been working on it but the etymology is not clear at all so far. Okay, I'm not sure etymology is the right word. I haven't found out yet why they call it a mandoline, but I am FAR from giving up. Facts can be as exciting as fantasy! 
Come now, are you insinuating that the people who run a replica of Anne Hathaway's cottage in Victoria, BC, would stretch the truth just a teeny bit?? 
