Fred, I wonder if it has to do with 'piping in' the main course. When the haggis, or roast pig, or whatever the main event was carried into the banquet, hot from the oven, it was accompanied by a piper.
Scots still follow this tradition at special feasts.
Posts: 6554 | Location: British Columbia, Canada | Registered: 06-11-02
Was this "piping in" done as early as the 1300's, do you suppose, when the M-W dictionary (linked above on this page) reports the usage of "piping hot" as first attested in English in the sense of "very hot" (without any guess at etymology, though)? Very possibly it was, and you could be right.
Posts: 2612 | Location: Upper U.S. | Registered: 06-11-02
The OED suggests that 'piping' is a reference to the piping or hissing sound made, for example, by a simmering liquid. Chaucer's miller refers to "wafers piping hot out of the embers". It would seem there is a reference to 'music' but maybe not quite in the manner of 'piping in the haggis', as I hope you'll all be doing on January 25th!
I'm not usually awake enough to find the keyboard at this hour, MQ, so maybe I should just go back into hibernation. I did find a second reference here which says much the same and again quotes Chaucer.
Posts: 744 | Location: Surrey, England | Registered: 06-03-02
I hereby recant my ad hoc etymology. If Chaucer used it in English that early, then it's piping as in hissing. I very much doubt that Chaucer would know any Scottish traditions.
Mind you, he did spend time at court, and there were emissaries there at that time from the Scottish court. But I very much doubt the English would have permitted them to play the pipes before meals. Too hard on the digestion.
(I love the pipes! But not everyone does.)
English joke:
How do you define a Scottish gentleman?
He knows how to play the pipes, but does not.
Posts: 6554 | Location: British Columbia, Canada | Registered: 06-11-02
