Topic started by Jai (@ g017046.ppp.dion.ne.jp) on Wed Feb 14 05:20:51 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Help!!! I want to know the etymology of
Dosai, Idily, Vada, Uppuma...

I can't sleep, nobody knows the meaning of
these words.

I heard my uncle once explained that Uppuma
meant, GIVE ME MORE SALT, MAMA. UPPU MA!

Responses:

• From: rajasekaran (@ 203.199.220.229) on: Wed Feb 14 06:17:31
  
  There was an intersting article about this in one of the last year's "kanaiyazhi" issue by Indira parthasarathy or somebody. Anybody remember reading it?
  
  
• From: SUNNY (@ 203.197.135.249) on: Wed Feb 14 09:02:01
  
  Dear MR.jai,
  i think its very difficult question to answer but still i ll let you know the meaning of DOSAI soon.
  
  WITH LOVE
  SUNNY
  
  
• From: K Selvi (@ bluewhale-ext.nus.edu.sg) on: Mon Feb 19 00:28:15
  
  Hi dear,
  My dad told me that "DO" in hindi means 2, so when
  we make Dosai we hear the sound "sai" once when we
  pour in the Dosai and another time when we turn it
  over, thus twice the sound sai. So Dosai.
  
  
• From: Hemant (@ 202.86.168.81) on: Mon Feb 19 05:58:27
  
  Hello Jai,
  In my experience of over 30 years in cooking, the only region that has an eqivalant sounding word in cookery is Gujarati.
  We have a thick wheat bread which is known as DHOSA
  This Dhosa is a precurser to making Ladoos.
  I think in olden days, food pan cake in India might have been known as DHOSA OR DHOSAI etc.
  In North India, it might have been made of Wheat and in S.India, it was made from Rice.
  I am sorry I can't give a more logical answer to your question.
  
  
• From: jegan (@ ) on: Tue Dec 24 04:02:08
  
  dear sir,
  reason for uppuma and dosai
  
  regards
  M.sivasarevanamuthu
  
  
• From: stg (@ 12.151.162.25) on: Tue Dec 24 04:23:11
  
  the roots for dosai cannot be from north india as dosai is a south indian dish.
  
  
• From: Shakthi (@ ppp-54.blr.eth.net) on: Tue Dec 24 05:41:25
  
  think this way! Does it sound sensible??
  
  uppuma......Uppitta maavu (means flour which is salted)
  
  
  
• From: Ramadas (@ dclient80-218-20-43.hispeed.ch) on: Tue Dec 24 07:23:57
  
  Who cares for the name! It is very nice to eat it..even if you call it by some other name I would not like to miss eating a nice one!
  (Who said that a Rose is a......?-Shakespeare or some such guy)
  
  
• From: Ramadas (@ dclient80-218-20-43.hispeed.ch) on: Tue Dec 24 16:03:18
  
  Maavai "Thoaythu" "Saivathu" Thosai?
  
  
• From: :)punnahai (@ d150-35-51.home.cgocable.net) on: Tue Dec 24 21:41:29
  
  why do mallus call it Dhosha as though it is some dhosham ;-)
  
  
• From: Ramadas (@ dclient80-218-20-43.hispeed.ch) on: Wed Dec 25 07:42:01
  
  Mallus do not use the "sha" used for dhosham in the "s'a" used for dos'a. They are different in pronounciation. As Punnahai does not know Sanskrit/Hindi/Telugu/Kannada/Malayalam, you won't know the difference. These sounds are not there in Tamil. Punnahai got confused because the English transliteration looks the same! Usha and Shaaradha are different pronounciation.
  
  
• From: Hemant (@ 202.93.132.3) on: Wed Dec 25 23:52:21
  
  Just a thought,
  When you pour the batter of Dosai on the hot plate, the sound generated almost sounds like DOSSSSSSSS.
  As it was an ancient practice , names were associated with sound generation ( example is sa.re.ga.ma.. etc)
  
  Similarly IDLI/IDLY may be "Id le veccha maavu" might have become Idli.
  just loud this is loud thinking.Any takers for this idea?
  
  
  
  
• From: I (@ dsc05-mig-fl-5-54.rasserver.net) on: Thu Dec 26 07:29:36
  
  I have heard people saying the samething but they say when u flip the dosa it makes second sound ssshhh (Or whatever) so "DHO"(2)sa.
  
  
• From: :)punnahai (@ d150-35-51.home.cgocable.net) on: Thu Dec 26 10:57:07
  
  >>As Punnahai does not know Sanskrit/Hindi/Telugu/Kannada/Malayalam<<
  
  Ramadas!!!
  
  How did you figure this out???? :):) FYI, I lknow both Kannada and Malayalam and do know the difference between the two sha (one from the front and the other from the middle of the mouth). Hindi, Kannada and Telugu, eventhough perhaps more closely tied with Sanskrit than our Malayalam, still use Dosa and not Dosha . Why does malayalams use dosha and not dosa.
  
  
• From: Ramadas (@ dclient80-218-20-43.hispeed.ch) on: Fri Dec 27 13:47:31
  
  Punnahai,
  Sorry for the goof up! Please forgive me!
  (Now you can rename yourself as "Punchiri"!)
  
  
• From: :)punnahai (@ d150-35-51.home.cgocable.net) on: Fri Dec 27 15:02:04
  
  :) no problem Ramdas, there's nothing to forgive :) Peace! Wish you a very Happy New Year!
  
  I am wondering if you were able to trace that girl Ambika whom you met in the train?
  
  
• From: Ramadas (@ dclient80-218-20-43.hispeed.ch) on: Sat Dec 28 14:26:19
  
  which Ambika? Punnahai, may be you have identified me as the wrong person. I remember only one Ambika who was living long ago (before 1979) in Chetput, Chennai. She was my classmate until 3rd Standard in Krishnaswami school. I have even forgotten her face. The only other Ambika I know in the "Saakshaat Ambika" addressed to in Lalitha Sahasranaamam. (Ambikaa Anaadhinidhana Haribrahmendrasevitha..)
  
  
• From: :)punnahai (@ d150-35-51.home.cgocable.net) on: Tue Dec 31 13:53:13
  
  Sorry Ramadas, may be I mistook someone else's post, which I am not able to find now. IT was about an 8 year old girl who was sweeping the trains somewhere near Irinjalakuda.
  
  
• From: Ramadas (@ dclient80-218-20-43.hispeed.ch) on: Wed Jan 1 14:19:59
  
  Oh yes, now i remember. It was somebody else who met her in the train, but seeing that posting i had written to my friends in palakkad, they have not come back to me.
  
  
• From: dasi-master (@ c-24-126-130-24.we.client2.attbi.com) on: Wed Dec 10 16:48:23
  
  In olden days King Mahavilicry of the travancore district of Kerala was know to be very ruthless, he used to punish people by beating them on their head. Very soon, most of the people began to have flat head. The intonation of "flat" in grass root malayalam was "do-shaia" and that area of travancore began to be known as the land of the "do-shaia's". As time went by the dash was soon mis placed and we have come to the modern day pronounciation of dosai which is associated with anything flat.
  
  Hope this helps..
  Please contact me for further clarification.
  
  
• From: prem (@ ac9285bf.ipt.aol.com) on: Wed Dec 10 20:47:03 EST 2003
  
  You guys are all wrong. Dosai originated in Karnataka (and Idli in Tamilnadu), so one has
  to look for rhe answer in the Kannada language.
  
  Dosai= Dose in Kannada and I have no idea about the origin of the word
  
  Any guesses for Idlis ? From the "idaradhu" maybe?
  
  
• From: seema (@ cs17022-189.jam.rr.com) on: Fri Dec 12 13:16:13 EST 2003
  
  Guys,
  It is like this "Thoithu sei"-thosai then it became dosai
  For "Idu ilai" idlies are steamed in leaves.It changed to idli.
  Uppitta maavu uppumaavu- uppuma
  
  

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