sandwich

pronunciation

How to pronounce sandwich in British English: UK [ˈsænwɪtʃ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce sandwich in American English: US [ˈsænwɪtʃ] word us audio image

Noun:

two (or more) slices of bread with a filling between them
Verb:

make into a sandwich
insert or squeeze tightly between two people or objects

Word Origin

sandwich: sandwich: [18] John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718–92), is said to have been so addicted to the gambling table that in order to sustain him through an entire 24-hour session uninterrupted, he had a portable meal of cold beef between slices of toast brought to him. The basic idea was nothing new, of course, but the Earl’s patronage ensured it a vogue, and by the early 1760s we have the first evidence of his name being attached to it: the historian Edward Gibbon in 1762 recorded in his diary how he dined at the Cocoa Tree and saw ‘twenty or thirty of the best men in the kingdom … supping at little tables … upon a bit of cold meat, or a Sandwich’.

sandwich (n.): 1762, said to be a reference to John Montagu (1718-1792), Fourth Earl Sandwich, who was said to be an inveterate gambler who ate slices of cold meat between bread at the gaming table during marathon sessions rather than get up for a proper meal (this account dates to 1770). It was in his honor that Cook named the Hawaiian islands (1778) when Montagu was first lord of the Admiralty. The family name is from the place in Kent, Old English Sandwicæ, literally "sandy harbor (or trading center)." For pronunciation, see cabbage. Sandwich board, one carried before and one behind, is from 1864.

sandwich (v.): 1841, from sandwich (n.), on the image of the stuff between the identical pieces of bread. Related: Sandwiched; sandwiching.