Pumpernickel is an unleavened dark bread made from whole rye grain that is prepared using a sourdough process. It is claimed to have originated during the fifteenth or sixteenth century in Westphalia, Germany, where it was developed during a famine. A colorful and odd story is told about its origins, having to do with Napoleon and his horses. Something smells about this pumpernickel bread origin, though!
Quick Answer: What does Pumpernickel actually mean? Despite the popular legend that Napoleon named the bread because it was “only good for his horse, Nickel,” the true origin is German. The name is a combination of pumpern (an Old German term for flatulence) and Nickel (a nickname for a goblin or the Devil). Literally translated, pumpernickel means “the farting goblin.” It’s a quite literal reference to the bread’s heavy, fiber-rich nature.
Is the Pumpernickel Bread Origin Really a Napoleon Slang?
It is often suggested that pumpernickel has French origins. Specifically, it has been claimed that it derives from the French phrase bon pour Nicol or pain pour Nicol. This is often said to have come from the lips of Napoleon, or at least from Napoleon’s soldiers.
Nicol, it turns out, is a French nickname for a poor-quality horse. According to the story, Napoleon’s soldiers, camped in Germany, complained about the indigestible local brown bread. In some versions of the story, Napoleon replied that his horse, whose name was Nickel, liked it well enough: “It’s bread for Nickel.”
He told his soldiers that if the bread was good enough for his horse, it was good enough for them. Other versions of the story have Napoleon saying the bread was only good enough for a low-quality horse. Which version of the story you believe does not matter, since neither of them is the origin of the word pumpernickel.
🎭The Napoleon and Shakespeare Conspiracy Much like the persistent myth that William Shakespeare invented every idiom he ever wrote down, there is a strange “conspiracy” to attach every mysterious food origin to Napoleon Bonaparte. In reality, these men were usually just the most famous people to use the words, not the ones who created them. Whether it’s an Emperor’s horse or a Bard’s play, we tend to erase the actual cultural history of a word in favor of a famous face.
The ‘Farting Goblin’ Etymology: Pumpernickel Meaning in Slang
The name of Pumpernickel bread does not come from French, however, but from German. The first part, pumpern is an old German word for ‘fart’ or ‘breaking wind.’ The last part, Nickel, comes from the name Nikolaous, or ‘Old Nick,’ a euphemistic name for the Devil, or a demon, goblin, etc.
The name pumpernickel may have come from the bread’s tendency to cause flatulence, probably owing to its very high fiber content, but this is only speculation.
🥐 The “French” Pastry That Isn’t The Napoleon-Pumpernickel myth is part of a larger pattern where we assign modern national identities to much older foods. Just as Pumpernickel isn’t actually a French soldier’s slang, the Croissant isn’t actually French. It was originally an Austrian pastry called the Kipferl, and it only became “French” through a similar process of cultural adoption and linguistic rebranding.
Does Pumpernickel Really Give You Gas?
It turns out the 16th-century Germans weren’t just being schoolyard bullies; they were observant. Traditional pumpernickel is made from whole-grain rye and uses a long, slow baking process (often up to 24 hours). This results in a bread that is incredibly dense and packed with resistant starch and fiber.
While these are great for gut health, they are also fermented by your gut bacteria. As anyone who has overindulged in high-fiber foods knows, the byproduct of that fermentation is, well, gas. So, the name pumpernickel isn’t just a colorful metaphor; it’s a biological warning label that has stayed attached to the bread for five hundred years.
Pumpernickel in Pop Culture: The Moneypenny Connection
While the actual pumpernickel bread origin is rooted in Westphalian ovens, the word has taken on a life of its own in pop culture, most notably in the world of James Bond. In the Moneypenny Diaries, “Pumpernickel” appears as a cheeky, coded nickname.
It’s the kind of word that sounds exactly like what it is: a bit heavy, a bit ridiculous, and undeniably German. Whether it’s being used as a secret cipher or a term of endearment, the word’s survival in our modern lexicon has less to do with Napoleon’s horses and more to do with its unique, rhythmic sound. It is a linguistic “strongman,” memorable enough to survive centuries of translation and a few James Bond novels.
Further Reading: A Little Less Smelly, But Full of Linguistic Flavor
- The Language of Food: Why we are so quick to trade historical truth for a “palatable” myth.
- Who First Said “You Are What You Eat”?: If this is true, what are you if you just ate a “farting goblin”? Discover the real (and non-culinary) origin of this famous phrase.
- Beef Jerky Etymology: How a Quechua word for dried meat was “re-invented” by English speakers to fit a sound they recognized.
- The Napoleon Connection to Barbecue?: Another case where the “Great Man” theory attempts to rewrite indigenous history.