How Books Taught Europeans to Smoke

[PipeIT]

How Books Taught Europeans to Smoke - JSTOR Daily

The printed word helped spread the inhaling habit across the continent.

daily.jstor.org

 

[midcentry]

Interesting read! Love reading little snippets like this

 

[kcghost]

Lucky you were able to find this site and let us know about it.

 

[bullet08]

Now I understand why they need an instruction on chopstick packages.

 

[S.A. DeVault]

“Smoking was an entirely new concept to the Europeans who encountered people in the Americas using tobacco. These Europeans sometimes described it as “drinking smoke.””

I grew up bilingual or trilingual, and one of my hobbies is studying foreign languages. “Drinking smoke” caught my eye as in my father’s language, Hindustani, the common verb used “to smoke” is the same as “to drink”. So technically in Northern India and Pakistan one “drinks” a pipe, cigarette, cigar.

 

[bayareabriar]

“Smoking was an entirely new concept to the Europeans who encountered people in the Americas using tobacco. These Europeans sometimes described it as “drinking smoke.””

I grew up bilingual or trilingual, and one of my hobbies is studying foreign languages. “Drinking smoke” caught my eye as in my father’s language, Hindustani, the common verb used “to smoke” is the same as “to drink”. So technically in Northern India and Pakistan one “drinks” a pipe, cigarette, cigar.

Yes. I think English fails us with concept. “To draw into ones mouth” = Drink.

 

[bayareabriar]

Awesome post

 

[sittingbear]

That's how I learned to smoke a pipe. I read about the technique (and the art in general) in a book in Sweden.