On Food and Cooking

Most of our words for crustaceans go back
to prehistoric times. Shrimp comes from
the Indo-European root skerbh, meaning to
turn, bend, or shrink, perhaps reflecting the
curled shape of these creatures. The near-
synonym prawn first appears in medieval
times, and its origins are unknown. Crab
and crayfish both derive from the Indo-
European gerbh, meaning to scratch or
carve, something that crustacean claws
readily do to human skin. Finally, lobster
shares with locust the Indo-European root
lek, meaning to leap or fly: a remarkably
early recognition of the family
resemblance of crustaceans and insects.
Crustacean itself comes from an Indo-
European root meaning to freeze, to form a
crust, and describes the hard outer skeleton
of these creatures. It shares this root with
crystal.
Crustacean texture is also more tolerant of
freezing than most fish; frozen shrimp in