Where the word ‘doughnut’ comes from and how the nutless fried dough product acquired such a name
- The ‘nut’ part of the name ‘doughnut’ or ‘donut’ is sometimes thought to come from the nuts stuffed in the centre of what were the product’s predecessors
- National Doughnut Day, on June 2 this year, is an annual celebration in the United States, one also observed in Australia
Flour, water, fat, heat. All cultures have harnessed these elements throughout history. Traces of fried dough foods have been found in prehistoric Native American settlements while ancient Greeks and Romans ate sweetened fried doughs, the Roman honey-dipped version called globi.
There are as many names for them as there are fried dough foods. In some languages, their names reflect the composition: Mandarin’s 油条 yóutíao means “oil strip”, while Cantonese has the evocative yàuhjagwái 油炸鬼 “oil-fried devil/ghost”.
In the English-speaking world, it is generally accepted that what is known as the doughnut evolved in America.
These originated from olie koeken/olykoeks “oil cakes”, introduced by 17th and 18th century Dutch immigrants in New York, then New Netherland, described in Washington Irving’s 1809 A History of New York as “an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat, and called dough nuts, or oly koeks”.
The “nut” part of the name is sometimes thought to come from the nuts and fruits stuffed in the dough’s centre.
Another explanation lies in the fact that, apart from a hard edible kernel, the word nut is also used for something that resembles a nut in shape – a small knob of butter or meat, or a small rounded biscuit or cake.
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A 1750 country cookbook by southern England’s William Ellis includes a recipe for “How to make Hertfordshire Cakes, Nuts, and Pincushions”. Reference to gingerbread nuts is found in 1775 correspondence.
Such recipes – and the use of “nut” – are suggested to have been brought from England to America, the precursor of doughnuts.
During World War I, in the Salvation Army’s huts for American soldiers near the front lines in France, doughnuts were easier to prepare with limited equipment than freshly baked goods, and were an instant hit. The female volunteers were called Doughnut Girls or Lassies.
The Salvation Army’s 1938 Chicago event to honour these wartime volunteers grew to become an annual celebration in the United States, on the first Friday of June: National Donut Day. (The American-English phonetic-based spelling of donut had gained currency by the mid-20th century.)
Also observed in Australia, this involves competitions, giveaways and donations.
The doughnut has evolved as a symbol of hope for another world event. During the first year of the pandemic, the term doughnut day, with hashtag #donutday and doughnut emoji, was coined in Australia – a ring doughnut representing zero – meaning a day with no new cases.
