Bacon
nounCured meat from the back or sides of a pig, usually sliced and fried.
How to spell bacon
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce bacon
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does bacon mean?
- nounCured meat from the back or sides of a pig, usually sliced and fried.
Bacon in a sentence
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She fried two rashers of bacon for breakfast.
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The smell of bacon drifted from the kitchen each morning.
Where does bacon come from?
Language of origin: French
Bacon entered English in the early 1300s from Old French bacon, meaning cured pork, which in turn came from a Germanic root represented by Frankish bako, related to words meaning 'back' or 'ham'. The underlying sense pointed to the back and sides of the pig, the very cuts that were salted and smoked to preserve them. For centuries the word could refer broadly to any cured pork, only later narrowing to the familiar rashers and sides we know today. The surname Bacon, famously borne by the philosopher Francis Bacon, shares this origin, originally marking someone who sold or prepared the meat. The spelling is mercifully phonetic, with the single 'c' and the soft '-on' ending rarely tripping anyone up.
How the word is built
- bac- (from Old French/Germanic bako: back, ham)
- -on (noun suffix)
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