Interlarded

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. To scatter phrases, comments or other material through a speech or text ; to push strips of fat or bacon into lean meat before roasting it
2. To intersperse words or remarks at intervals throughout a piece of writing or talk ; to lace meat with thin slices of lard prior to cooking
3. Mixing extra material into the body of a speech or text at various points ; placing thin pieces of fat within lean meat before it is cooked

Etymology: The verb started as a cooking term. Late Middle English "interlarden" meant to mix fat into something, and it came into English from Old French "entrelarder", which was used for putting strips of bacon into meat before roasting. The Old French word combined "entre-", meaning "between", with "larder", "to smear with lard", so the literal image is of fat threaded between the layers of a dish. From that kitchen sense the word moved into writing and speech. French cooks had already applied "entrelarder" to a text, meaning to furnish it with verses or metaphors scattered throughout, and English adopted the figurative use, so a speaker who interlards a talk with quotations is doing to language what a cook once did to a roast. The noun "interlarde" also existed in Middle English, originally meaning abdominal fat, which shows how close the bodily and culinary senses once were. This is a form of "interlard", the verb, and "interlarded" is the past tense and past participle.

Synonyms: interspersed, peppered, studded, sprinkled, mixed