pastramin.

Etymology: < Yiddish pastrame (in Ashkenazic pronunciation pastrami) < Romanian pastramă pressed and preserved meat (1792; also as păstramă) < Ottoman Turkish baṣdurma, baṣdirma, lit. ‘something pressed, forced down’ (c1490; with reference to the process in which the cured meat is prepared; Turkish pastırma, regional basdırma, bastırma, basdurma), verbal noun of bastırmak to suppress, to press down. Compare modern Greek παστουρμάς, Bulgarian pastărma ( < Turkish).Compare the following earlier quotations, the first two probably reflecting the Turkish etymon (in quot. 1846 relating travels in Asia Minor in the first half of the 17th cent.), the latter two reflecting the Romanian:1831 A. N. Groves Jrnl. 12 Sept. in Jrnl. Resid. Bagdad (1832) 250 We made him some sausages, called in this country pastourma.1846 J. von Hammer tr. Evliya Çelebi Narr. Trav. I. ii. lxxx. 148 The Merchants of dried salted beef (Tajirání Pasdirma)..cry to the beholders, ‘Take Pasdirma.’1853 Househ. Words 17 Dec. 374/1 The common articles of food [in Varna] are pastruma, that is to say, the meat of oxen or buffaloes salted and dried in the sun.1887 M. Thorpe tr. E. de Laveleye Balkan Penins. xii. 352 They..dry the meat, which is, as pastrama,..their favourite dish. Pastrami was apparently first sold in the United States in a Jewish delicatessen c1887. The Yiddish word is also occasionally found in an English context in the forms pastroma and pastrama. Compare:1914 N.Y. Times 21 Aug. 5 From the local market came the complaint of the Kosher delicatessen men that the manufacturers had put up prices. Pastrama, they said, had been raised from 36 to 42 cents a pound. The extended use, while later in English, is the original meaning of the Romanian and Turkish words; in the Balkans, pastrami has always been made of any of a number of pressed and preserved meats, rather than being limited specifically to beef.