Interlarding

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Breaking up a speech or text by scattering in foreign words or phrases ; pushing strips of fat into the layers of meat before it is cooked
2. Mixing extra material in among the main content of writing or talk ; threading fat through a cut of meat to keep it moist while roasting
3. The practice of inserting words, phrases or remarks throughout a passage ; the technique of slipping bacon or other fat into lean meat before cooking

Etymology: The word began as a kitchen technique. Cooks in late medieval Europe pushed strips of bacon or fat into lean meat so it would not dry out during roasting, and the French verb "entrelarder" named this practice. English borrowed it as "interlarden" in the Late Middle Ages, meaning to mix fat into something, and the bacon sense remained its literal core. The figurative sense grew from the same picture. Just as fat threaded through lean meat, a speaker or writer could thread phrases, quotations or asides through a text, so the verb came to mean to scatter something through a passage. The noun also has an older physical sense, "abdominal fat", which shows how closely the English word stayed tied to the larder. Its make-up is transparent: "inter-" means "between", and "lard" is the verb meaning to smear with fat. The base noun "lard" comes from Latin "lārdum", a word of uncertain origin that may trace back to a Greek adjective meaning "fat" or "fatted".

Synonyms: interspersing, peppering, interpolating, sprinkling, padding