It was Pancake Tuesday recently, but that didn’t inspire much pondering in me. After all, pancake is just pan + cake. A cake you make in a pan. But a few days later I thought about the word again.

Specifically, I thought about it again on Sunday. While writing my last post, I had an old episode of Columbo on in the background. In it, William Shatner played an actor famous for playing a TV detective. He was trying to “help” Columbo solve the murder (of course he actually was the murderer). What struck me though was when he referred to pancake makeup.

I hadn’t actually known that was a legitimate term. And I realised not only that it was a common term, but also where the name comes from, when Shatner’s character demonstrated to Columbo the difference between pancake makeup (used on film and TV), and regular makeup.

You see, it looks a pancake! It’s flat and spongy, like a pancake! And looking into it, I discovered it’s a brandname, owned by Noxell Corporation.

It’s always nice to learn something new about English, and if William Shatner can teach it to me, even better!