'Jarring' is jarring

[anna_wing]

I seem to recall that in my distant youth the process of preserving fruit or vegetables in sealed glass containers was called 'bottling'. There was also Richard III, the bottled spider (I remember wondering as a child why anyone would want to put a spider in a bottle, it seemed a rather cruel thing to do). When did it become 'jarring', a word with a useful existing meaning of its own that didn't need another one?

Comments

[flemmings]

Over here I believe it was called canning, even though no cans were involved.

[anna_wing]

was there a word that was used before canning was invented?

[flemmings]

Probably preserving.

[heleninwales]

Yes bottling or preserving or perhaps pickling, depending on exactly what was being done. "Jarring" is just wrong.

[anna_wing]

Yes to all three in my part of the world too. Pickling is the big thing here, mostly of vegetables. My grand-aunts used to make theirs in old Nescafe glass jars. Fruit is usually dry-pickled commercially; it's not something one would do at home.

[sartorias]

Yeah. Gilding the lily a bit? Like turning the noun gift into a verb, "gifting" when GIVE has been around, and perfectly useful since, I dunno, forever.

[anna_wing]

Yes, I loathe that one too.

[sovay]

When did it become 'jarring', a word with a useful existing meaning of its own that didn't need another one?

Huh. I believe it's still "canning" in the U.S., despite the use of glass rather than metal.

[anna_wing]

But there must have been a word for preserving fruit and vegetables in bottles or jars before canning was invented. Pickles have been around for a very long time.

[sovay]

But there must have been a word for preserving fruit and vegetables in bottles or jars before canning was invented. Pickles have been around for a very long time.

Prior to the existence of Mason jars, I assume people just said "pickling" when they meant making pickles and "preserving" when they meant making preserves, but I definitely think of "canning" as the older word for what you describe, not "jarring."

[grey_gazania]

Over here we call in canning, even when it's not in a can; mason jars are also called canning jars. I've only heard bottling in reference to liquids. Jarring is completely new.