Word of the Week: Latke

 Latke: A pancake, especially one made from potatoes and eaten during the eight-day Chanukah/Hanukkah holiday, which began last night. Latkes are fried in copious quantities of oil (traditionally olive oil) to commemorate the historic Chanukah miracle of a small amount of lamp oil lasting for eight days.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Phyllis Glazer explains that a latke "is not just a pancake made from potatoes, it's a potato pancake with a poor man's pedigree, a history, a tradition and a neshamah, a soul."

Latke is a Yiddish word, but Glazer discovered a complicated etymology:

I found that some sources claim it derives from the Old Russian oladka, and is a diminutive of olad'ya, from Greek eladia, the plural of eladion, which means "a little oily thing" and comes from elāi, which means "olive."

Maybe, maybe not. Webster's Third International Dictionary supports the "olive" etymology, but the Shorter OED gives a different source: Russian latka, "an earthenware vessel," and stops there, so I couldn't tell whether this latka is related to Old Russin oladka. Someone with the big OED, or an authoritative Yiddish dictionary, want to help me out?

Latkes don't have to be made from potatoes. Here's a recipe for latkes made with four to five cups of chopped olives.

Latkes are much more popular in the United States than in other Jewish communities. When I lived in Israel, I never saw latkes during Chanukah. Instead, people ate sufganiyot, plump and delicious jelly doughnuts. Deep-fried in oil, of course.

In related holiday-themed news, the Jamaican bobsled team (yes, the 2008 version of that Jamaican bobsled team) includes a man named Hanukkah Wallace.

Photo: Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[Jessica]

I can report that the America's Test Kitchen version kicked latke tuchis last night. Meanwhile, twenty-three years since my Chanukah on Kibbutz Ein Hashofet, I have still not forgotten the way those sufganiyot linger in your stomach . . . I'll go for the latkes, thanks.

[Nancy Friedman]

I knew it was a mistake to cancel that Cook's Illustrated web subscription. The latkes at the Dolphin Club last night were symbolic at best, but someone brought a blintz casserole that was to die for--probably sooner rather than later, given the quantity and quality of dairy products in the filling.

[Jonathon]

The big OED says only, "Yiddish, a. Russ. látka a pastry."

[Joy-Mari]

I have never enjoyed latkes but they're popular in South Africa. But I'll give them another try soon.

[Virtual Linguist]

Yes, Jonathon is right; the OED does say it's from Russian latka meaning pastry, but the problem I have with that is that none of the Russian dictionaries I have consulted have that definition. Latka can mean an 'earthenware vessel' as the Shorter Oxford says, but in that sense it is a dialect word used in St Petersburg and the North. I got that from an online etymological dictionary. The Russian dictionaries I have at home (which are pretty good) give just one definition of 'latka' and that is 'patch' ie piece of material sewn on ragged clothing. So that could be it, with the latkes either being the shape of a patch or so-called because of the poor man connection as mentioned by Phyllis Glazer. I have eaten olad'i in Russia; they are small thick pancakes with yeast being an obligatory ingredient.