new word suggestion

[Perry Lassiter]

"Rasher" - probably a Briticism as I usually find it in English novels, though I have found it on American menus. Always seems to be "a rasher of bacon," meaning2-4 strips. Seems a weird word to apply to bacon. Whence cometh it?

[Perry]

I got a lot of "origin unknown"s and then this:

Etymology: perhaps from obsolete rash to cut, from Middle English rashen
Date: 1591
: a thin slice of bacon or ham broiled or fried; also : a portion consisting of several such slices

[DavidN]

Might the word "ration" also be a child of rasher (rashen)? Or a cousin or great great great step-son or such?

[Perry]

You may hve benn rash in pondering this connection. Sounds like a nice idea but for this.
ration

1550, "reasoning," later, "relation of one number to another" (1666), then "fixed allowance of food" (1702, often rations, from Fr. ration), from L. rationem (nom. ratio) "reckoning, calculation, proportion" (see ratio). The verb meaning "put (someone) on a fixed allowance" is recorded from 1859; sense of "apportion in fixed amounts" is from 1870. The military pronunciation (rhymes with fashion) took over from the preferred civilian pronunciation (rhymes with nation) during World War I. Rationing is from 1918, from conditions in England during the war.