There was a question to Judith Martin of "Miss Manners" in the Tribune a few days ago that I thought would be a great question for this board. Someone is hosting a simi-formal queen's party for Mardi Gras and wants to host a buffet. She dislikes the word buffet and asked Miss Manners for a better word. Miss Manners points out that the Victorians first used the word buffet to describe a meal laid out for self service. So...instead she suggested the "abandoned" word collation, which she says means "light supper." While dictionaries concur with this definition, they also say that collation means "a light meal allowed on fast days in place of lunch or supper. How have you seen it used?

What word would you have suggested? Is there another?

I'd tell the b**ch she's just too damned snooty; nobody would know what the hell she was talking about if she used "collation," and she should just host a grubfest.

Geoff the curmudgeon

"Dinner is served. Prepare to go hands-on."

A collation was a gathering of monks, usually in the library at the end of the day, for a Bible reading. Eventually, the light meaal served to the monks at this time became known as a collation. Perhaps if her guests were to dress in vestments and tunics, the name might work.

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Yeah, maybe so, Proof, but if someone invited me to a "collation" I'd expect to be sorted according to alphabetical order or some such system. I've seen office printers that would collate, but none of them spat out food.

BTW, did you know that petits fours served with punch give Germans the runs? It's true! They call them Punschkrapfen. Aren't you thrilled to know that!

Maitre d': "do you wish to be collated, sir? With or without staple?"

Kalleh - never heard it used this way in English, but now I get why "collation" means snack in French. Etymonline.com doesn't mention the food aspect in English, but notes that our word came (in 14thc) from the (13thc) Old French word, whose meanings included "a light supper".

I agree with Geoff's comment above that she is snooty. However, I was interested in the question...besides collation (which I agree is not well-known enough in that context), do any other words come to mind?

I've only come across the word in "cold collation", which was the sort of snack country house parties up to the 1920s would eat during a day of huntin' shootin' and fishin' on the estates. Bertie Wooster is the sort of chap who'd partake. I've never heard of a hot collation, and it would of course ruin the alliteration.

I hadn't heard it at all, except to collate some papers.

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:


now I get why "collation" means snack in French.

But "col" means neck, so do the French snack on necks? Nah - Dracula wasn't French. Oh! I know! it has to do with the guillotine! It's a term from La Terreur!

But "col" means neck, so do the French snack on necks?

(I know you're probably kidding, Geoff, but as a service to others who may see this ...)

English < French < Latin collatio, collationis, 'a bringing together, collecting' (it seems the newer meaning of light meal is because a meal is a bringing together of various monks or nuns to eat, tha time being the only time they are all together) < verb confero, conferre, contuli, collatus (the forms of the verb are different from one another): from Latin con- 'together' + fero 'to carry, bear, bring'; the noun collatio is formed from the stem of the past participle collat- + the suffix -io, -ionis[/i].

Of course I was kidding, Z, but yeah, some might not know it. Your etymology seems to bear more on the common use of "collation" than on the Miss Manners one.

BTW, do you suppose any French executioners ever confused "col" with "cul?" It would explain a certain American English expression.