Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Italian term or phrase:
lattigini di morena
English translation:
lamprey milt (milky white) (milky moray eel, moray eel viscera) (murenarum lactes)
Added to glossary by
Cristina Bufi Poecksteiner, M.A.
Aug 11, 2023 03:57
10 mos ago
27 viewers *
Italian term
Lattigini di morena
Italian to English
Other
Food & Drink
exotic food at a Roman feast
The text is a fantasy-type short story and this part relates to the character's feasting at the house of Petronius, in Roman times. She lists the delicacies:
"E che cene! Lattigini di murena, cervella di fagiano, lingue di fenicottero"
I understand "murena" to be eel, but I can't find a meaning for lattigini, unless it means "latticini". But if it does, then I can't reconcile it combined with "murena". I'm hoping that someone can share an insight with me. Isobel
"E che cene! Lattigini di murena, cervella di fagiano, lingue di fenicottero"
I understand "murena" to be eel, but I can't find a meaning for lattigini, unless it means "latticini". But if it does, then I can't reconcile it combined with "murena". I'm hoping that someone can share an insight with me. Isobel
Proposed translations
(English)
3 +3 | lamprey milt (milky white) (milky moray eel, moray eel viscera) (murenarum lactes) | Cristina Bufi Poecksteiner, M.A. |
Change log
Aug 24, 2023 19:47: Cristina Bufi Poecksteiner, M.A. Created KOG entry
Proposed translations
+3
5 hrs
Selected
lamprey milt (milky white) (milky moray eel, moray eel viscera) (murenarum lactes)
"murenarum lactes" = latte di murena (in latino: sostanza molle e lattiginosa che si trova nelle interiora
murenarum lactes = lamprey milt (i.e. the testes, containing sperm)
The milt is milky white in appearance, with a delicate and smooth mouthfeel and a mild, slightly fishy taste
lamprey (eel-like sea animal) = lampreda
For the final item, Suetonius returns to the water. Lamprey, a meaty fish, was an expensive Roman delicacy, though its appeal is known best through a much later anecdote: Henry I of England is said to have died from a surfeit of lampreys.Footnote 34 These creatures are native to the western and central Mediterranean, and according to Pliny (HN 9.169), the best lampreys were found around Sicily, though from the late Republic they were farmed. Anecdotes tend to dwell not on their taste, but on the habits of their owners: some affected to pamper the animals (Plin. HN 9.171–2), while Vedius Pollio (9.77) notoriously (and improbably) killed enslaved members of his household by feeding them to his lampreys. Murenarum lactes are lamprey milt, i.e. the testes, containing sperm.
The milt is milky white in appearance, with a delicate and smooth mouthfeel and a mild, slightly fishy taste.
Lampreys spawn from mid-Spring to mid-Summer, and the milt would therefore have been available to be served on the Shield.Footnote 37
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/greece-and-rome/arti...
lampreda
(dal latino lampreda; fr. lamproie; sp. lamprea; ted. Pricke, Neunauge; ingl. lamprey)
Genere di Pesci, della classe Ciclostomi o Marsipobranchî, ordine Iperoarti, famiglia Petromizontidi. Il genere che ha dato il nome alla famiglia è Petromyzon L. (dal gr. πέτρον "pietra" e μύζω "succhio"), al quale soltanto la grossa lampreda marina (P. marinus L.) è ascritta dai sistematici moderni; è specie anadroma, che risale i fiumi per la deposizione delle uova, e può raggiungere fino a 90 cm. di lunghezza. La lampreda di fiume (Lampetra fluviatilis L.), lunga 30-40 cm., vive anch'essa nel mare e risale i fiumi per riprodursi. La lampreda di ruscello (L. planeri Bl.) lunga da 10 a 20 cm., invece, completa il ciclo vitale nelle acque dolci. Tutte tre le specie sono diffuse in Europa, e comuni in Italia (v. ciclostomi).
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/lampreda_(Enciclopedia-...
lattigini di morena = milky moray eel, moray eel viscera ... with ciguatoxin
Structures and configurations of ciguatoxin from the moray eel ...
... The toxin, isolated from the moray eel Gymnothorax javanicus, and its congener, ... as a white solid from 125 kg of moray eel viscera.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ja00167a040
Introduction to Ancient Roman Food
... Another common food was fish which were often bred in nurseries. Over 100 types have been identified, from bream, mullet, turbot, sole, snapper, mackerel, octopus, dates, prawns, scampi, cuttlefish, tuna to moray eels, lobsters and oysters. The poorer levels of society had to make do mostly with fish preserved in brine.
https://www.deliciousitaly.com/lazio-rome-food-wine/introduc...
Riaprendo il buon vecchio vocabolario di latino scopriamo che "lactes" (al solo plurale e femminile) indica i visceri, meglio l'intestino (al di sotto dell'ombelico per la precisione, "Thesaurus Linguæ Latinæ"), le budella degli animali. Con "murenarum lactes", latte di murena, i latini definivano la sostanza molle e lattiginosa che si trova nelle interiora. E' dunque probabile che l'immagine dei visceri (e forse altro!) che per stanchezza, si srotolano, allungandosi e distendendosi fino a toccare le ginocchia possa pure aver dato luogo a quella di rilassamento, noia e impotenza".
https://www.caveri.it/blog/2021/06/15/fra-buonismo-e-cattivi...
murenarum lactes = lamprey milt (i.e. the testes, containing sperm)
The milt is milky white in appearance, with a delicate and smooth mouthfeel and a mild, slightly fishy taste
lamprey (eel-like sea animal) = lampreda
For the final item, Suetonius returns to the water. Lamprey, a meaty fish, was an expensive Roman delicacy, though its appeal is known best through a much later anecdote: Henry I of England is said to have died from a surfeit of lampreys.Footnote 34 These creatures are native to the western and central Mediterranean, and according to Pliny (HN 9.169), the best lampreys were found around Sicily, though from the late Republic they were farmed. Anecdotes tend to dwell not on their taste, but on the habits of their owners: some affected to pamper the animals (Plin. HN 9.171–2), while Vedius Pollio (9.77) notoriously (and improbably) killed enslaved members of his household by feeding them to his lampreys. Murenarum lactes are lamprey milt, i.e. the testes, containing sperm.
The milt is milky white in appearance, with a delicate and smooth mouthfeel and a mild, slightly fishy taste.
Lampreys spawn from mid-Spring to mid-Summer, and the milt would therefore have been available to be served on the Shield.Footnote 37
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/greece-and-rome/arti...
lampreda
(dal latino lampreda; fr. lamproie; sp. lamprea; ted. Pricke, Neunauge; ingl. lamprey)
Genere di Pesci, della classe Ciclostomi o Marsipobranchî, ordine Iperoarti, famiglia Petromizontidi. Il genere che ha dato il nome alla famiglia è Petromyzon L. (dal gr. πέτρον "pietra" e μύζω "succhio"), al quale soltanto la grossa lampreda marina (P. marinus L.) è ascritta dai sistematici moderni; è specie anadroma, che risale i fiumi per la deposizione delle uova, e può raggiungere fino a 90 cm. di lunghezza. La lampreda di fiume (Lampetra fluviatilis L.), lunga 30-40 cm., vive anch'essa nel mare e risale i fiumi per riprodursi. La lampreda di ruscello (L. planeri Bl.) lunga da 10 a 20 cm., invece, completa il ciclo vitale nelle acque dolci. Tutte tre le specie sono diffuse in Europa, e comuni in Italia (v. ciclostomi).
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/lampreda_(Enciclopedia-...
lattigini di morena = milky moray eel, moray eel viscera ... with ciguatoxin
Structures and configurations of ciguatoxin from the moray eel ...
... The toxin, isolated from the moray eel Gymnothorax javanicus, and its congener, ... as a white solid from 125 kg of moray eel viscera.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ja00167a040
Introduction to Ancient Roman Food
... Another common food was fish which were often bred in nurseries. Over 100 types have been identified, from bream, mullet, turbot, sole, snapper, mackerel, octopus, dates, prawns, scampi, cuttlefish, tuna to moray eels, lobsters and oysters. The poorer levels of society had to make do mostly with fish preserved in brine.
https://www.deliciousitaly.com/lazio-rome-food-wine/introduc...
Riaprendo il buon vecchio vocabolario di latino scopriamo che "lactes" (al solo plurale e femminile) indica i visceri, meglio l'intestino (al di sotto dell'ombelico per la precisione, "Thesaurus Linguæ Latinæ"), le budella degli animali. Con "murenarum lactes", latte di murena, i latini definivano la sostanza molle e lattiginosa che si trova nelle interiora. E' dunque probabile che l'immagine dei visceri (e forse altro!) che per stanchezza, si srotolano, allungandosi e distendendosi fino a toccare le ginocchia possa pure aver dato luogo a quella di rilassamento, noia e impotenza".
https://www.caveri.it/blog/2021/06/15/fra-buonismo-e-cattivi...
Peer comment(s):
agree |
dandamesh
59 mins
|
grazie
|
|
agree |
P.L.F. Persio
1 hr
|
grazie
|
|
agree |
Corine van Ewijk
19 hrs
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you for your detailed and well researched answer. Isobel"
Reference comments
16 mins
Reference:
Note from asker:
Thanks for the interesting explanation in context, dandamesh. The formula "ïnteriora di murena" that martini provided could be translated as "entrails of moray eel".Thanks again, Isobel |
Discussion
http://www2.proz.com/kudoz/italian-to-english/mechanics-mech...
The milt is milky white in appearance, with a delicate and smooth mouthfeel and a mild, slightly fishy taste.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/greece-and-rome/arti...