Bacon

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbeɪ.kən/

Definitions

1. Cured and smoked meat from the back or sides of a pig, typically sliced into thin strips and fried until crisp
2. A type of meat derived from a pig that undergoes curing and smoking processes, commonly served in thin slices and often crisped during cooking
3. This product is prepared from the pork belly or back, cured and then often cooked until it reaches a crispy texture, making it a popular breakfast item

Etymology: Bacon is named for the back of the animal rather than the meat's flavour. The word traces to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "back", which also gave English "back" itself, and in Old Low Frankish it came to mean a ham or flitch, a side of pork cured as a whole piece. Cognates survive in Dutch "bake", meaning ham or side of bacon, and in German "Bache", which means a wild sow, a sign of how closely the animal and its cut were once linked. The word reached English through Anglo-Norman "bacon" and "bacun", meaning ham, flitch or strip of lard, and by Middle English it had settled on meat from the back and sides of a pig. The original sense of the cut has narrowed over time, so that bacon now usually means the cured and smoked slices, while the ham itself has become a separate word.

Synonyms: pork, ham, meat, charcuterie