Bagel Means Little Ring
A bagel is a boiled and baked bread ring. The name comes from Yiddish, from a word meaning to bend, and the boiling is what makes it a bagel.
A bagel is a ring of dough that is boiled before baking. The boiling is the definition, not the shape: it gelatinises the starch on the surface, which gives the bagel its shine and its dense chew, and no amount of ring-shaped baked bread will produce it without that step. The name is Yiddish *beygl*, from a Germanic root meaning to bend, the same idea as English *bow*.
- A boiled bread ring. *A sesame bagel.*
- In tennis — a set won six games to love. *He handed out a bagel.*
- Bagel shop — a place selling them. *A New York bagel shop.*
- Yiddish — *beygl*, a ring. *The source word.*
- Related — *bow*, to bend. *A bent bow.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | bagel | A fresh bagel. |
| Plural | bagels | A dozen bagels. |
| Yiddish | beygl | A ring. |
| Related | bialy | A soft bialy. |
| Related | pretzel | A salted pretzel. |
- The bagels are boiled before baking.Method.
- She lost the first set to a bagel.Tennis slang: six-love.
- Beygl means little ring in Yiddish.Etymology.
Yiddish words in English
- Bagel — a bread ring
- Schlep — to drag or carry with effort
- Glitch — a small fault, now everywhere in technology
- Klutz — a clumsy person
- Chutzpah — audacity, with a note of admiration
Yiddish *beygl*, from Middle High German *bougel*, a ring, from a root meaning to bend. English recorded it in the 1910s and it spread widely after the 1950s.
What makes a bagel a bagel?
Boiling the shaped dough before baking. That step gives the shiny crust and the dense chewy interior.
Why is six games to love called a bagel in tennis?
Because the zero on the scoreboard looks like a bagel. The slang is American and dates from the 1970s.