Calm as a Clam

Photo by The Curated Feast with Chef Dare Arowe and Heather Griffith

Food can help us travel through space and time—and it can also allow us to explore the connections embedded in the language of food, itself. 

Perhaps obviously, the word clam comes from the same root word as clamp. But imagine trying to pry open the lips of a clam before they were first steamed open, and you'll understand why this bivalve got their clammed up reputation. 

And it's actually a bit onomonopoetic—the name actually stems from the Proto-Germanic "klam" which also meant to press, or to squeeze together. But don't start clamming up now!

Another meaning for the Old English "clamm" is a vice, and media heavy hitter @vice wouldn't really have the same bite if it was called clam.

So stay calm and clam on, good bivalves.