Baguette

choi

David Marcelis, France's Bread Lovers Have A New Idea—and It's Half-Baked; The famously crusty baguette goes soft as customers demand a doughier loaf. Wall Street Journal, Aug 21, 2013 (front page).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 41863674124612.html

three consecutive paragraphs:

"The French are particular fans of the baguette, which accounts for three-quarters of all bread consumption, according to France's National Bread Observatory, which studies and promotes bread.

"Despite its honored status, the ubiquitous loaf isn't even a century old.

"The baguette as we know it dates to the 1920s and was a byproduct of a protective labor law that prevented French bakers from working between 10 pm and 4 am That made it impossible to prepare traditional round loaves by breakfast time. Bakers had to turn to a new kind of bread, whose thin shape made it faster to prepare and bake. The baguette—French for 'little stick'—quickly became a breakfast essential throughout France.


My comment:
(a) "Dominique Anract, a baker in Paris's 16th arrondissement, sells about 1,500 baguettes every day, and most of them he wouldn't want to eat himself. The vast majority of his customers, he says, choose the whitest, least-baked baguette on display."
(i) arrondissement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrondissement
(section 1 France)
(ii) arrondissements of Paris
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrondissements_of_Paris
(The city of Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements municipaux, more simply referred to as arrondissements; These are not to be confused with departmental arrondissements, which subdivide the 101 French départements)

(b)
(i) half-baked (adj)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/half-baked
(ii) doughy (adj):
"resembling dough: as not thoroughly baked <doughy bread>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doughy

(c) "Patrons have plenty of reasons for their preference—and they're not necessarily half-baked. For Camille Oger, a 30-year-old freelance reporter, eating a well-baked baguette can be a painful experience. 'It's hard to munch,' she says, 'and it hurts your gums and palate.'  Less-baked loaves 'won't break your teeth,' she adds. * * * Many other customers say they ask for a 'white baguette' because it will taste better reheated at home."

This addresses my puzzlement how French or Italians can eat the hard and dry bread.

(d) Maillard reaction
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
(named after [French] chemist Louis-Camille Maillard, who first described it in 1912)

pronunciation:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maillard%20reaction

(e) "In a bid to protect the industry, French law dictates what ingredients can be used to make these baguettes (essentially, wheat flour, water, salt and yeast)"

The difference between baguette and Italian bread is baguette is longer, thinner, and may have ingredients (such as olive oil) other than dictated by France above.

(f)
(i) In French, baguette is noun feminine.
(ii) etymology of the English noun baguette

* from m-w.com:
"French, literally, rod, from Middle French, from Italian bacchetta, ultimately from Latin baculum staff; First Known Use 1926"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/baguette

* from Online Etymology Dictionary:
"1727, a type of architectural ornament, from French baguette (16c.), from Italian bacchetta, literally 'a small rod,' diminutive of bacchio 'rod,' from Latin baculum 'a stick' (see bacillus 芽孢桿菌). Meaning 'a diamond cut long' is from 1926; that of 'a long, thin loaf of French bread' is from 1958."
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=baguette

* So baguette itself means stick or rod. It is the Italian forebear that means "little stick" or "small rod."