www.alphadictionary.com

• marshmallow •

Pronunciation: (US) mahrsh-me-low, (UK) mahsh-mæ-lêw • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. (Regional) A species of mallow, Althaea officinalis, native to marshy terrain in North Africa and Eurasia. It has pink flowers and a mucilaginous root used in herbal medicine and, at one time, in confections. 2. A spongy, sweet confection made from corn syrup, sugar, gelatin or egg whites, originally made from the root of the marshmallow; a small cake of this. 3. Something or someone who is weak, wishy-washy, spineless.

Notes: Today's word refers to a confection we eat without thinking about the complexity of its name. It comes with an adjective, marshmallowy, but with no other derivational family.

In Play: Marshmallows are usually eaten in the US after being singed over an open fire: "Until he graduated from high school, all of Axel's birthday parties ended in roasting marshmallows in the fireplace." One of America's favorite snacks is known as smores, the ingredients of which are noted in this quote from Stephen Colbert: "Mayor Nagin, I'd like to welcome you to Washington D.C., the chocolate city with a marshmallow center, and a graham cracker crust of corruption."

Word History: Today's Good Word is obviously a compound of marsh + mallow, words which seem to have nothing to do with the object it refers to. Actually, a mallow is a plant, the roots of which were originally used to make a confection like today's marshmallow. Marsh is cousin to Dutch moeras, German Marsch, and Danish marsk, all realizations of PIE mori- "sea, standing water", which also produced Latin mare "sea", Cornish and Breton mor "sea", Irish mór "huge", Scots Gaelic mar "sea", and Russian more "sea". We aren't quite sure of the PIE origin of mallow, but it seems to have produced Latin malva "mallows", source of Modern French mauve "mallow; mauve", and Spanish, Portuguese and Italian malva "mallow; mauve". In ancient Greek it emerged as malakhe "mallow". (Now let's thank Tony Bowden of London for his gift of today's ostensibly bizarrely mismatched Good Word.)

Marshmallows of the miniature variety are also yummy additions to chocolat chaud,

And are marshmallows roasted or toasted for s'mores? (The carbon coating resulting from setting them alight seems more akin to burnt toast. Lots of experience from old Girl Scout days.) Possibly a regional difference.

There's also the Irish song "The Rakes of Mallow".

Finally, I suspect "morass" is akin to "marsh", via the Dutch.

Morass-- could it perhaps also be related the French version, marais?
Am I correct in assuming that at least some mallows' flowers are mauve in color?

Mallow is related to the word meaning mauve, which is, according to my understanding, a reddish-purple. Now it gets weird. It's also related to malachite, which is green. Color me confused.

According to etymonline, "the mineral traditionally so called from the resemblance of its color to that of the LEAVES of the mallow plant." [emphasis added]

Well, these are all interesting contributions. I note from pullupyourplants.medium.com in relation to Common Mallow (Malva
Neglecta):

Binomial Etymology — Malva neglecta

Malv *a is “the mallow;” neglecta is “neglected” (Borror, 1960). The Latin name, malva, comes from the Greek term for mallow, malache, which was derived from the Greek term, malakos, which means “soft” (Moreno, 2005).

I note the malachite connection, but also the 'soft' suggestion. So presumably a close relation also of mellow?

I enjoyed this little mellow mallow romp. I put crunchy peanut butter on my graham crackers.

This reminds me of an experience outside a British pub in the summer many years back. Two old guys enjoying their pints on the benches outside the pub. I heard one talking about his garden. "The secret of success with rhubarb is to put lots of manure on it." The other bloke who was probably a little drunk, said " Really? We put custard on ours".

Do you have custard in North America? Or should I explain this?

David ,
If you're talking about the eating phase of rhubarb, yes, we have custard.
My mother, however, added tapioca in the preparation, so it needed no extra topping.
(And "rhubarb" is a very good word; its non-culinary sense undoubtedly has an interesting history.)

Yes, widely used (allegedly) for actors in the background to create an effect of general chatter.

Wow! Rhubarb and tapioca? Sounds like a suitable combination. But unlikely in Australia where rhubarb is not a successful or widespread crop and tapioca is nearly unknown.