Cold cuts......

[janzman]

Why is a thinly cut piece of meat /poultry etc called a 'slice' but with bacon its a 'rasher'

[Lakitu]

I believe it'a referring to the cut, I can't be certain though.

[dr b]

The OED defines rasher as "1. a. A thin slice or strip of bacon, or (less commonly) of other meat, intended to be cooked by grilling, broiling, or frying; a slice of meat cooked in this way."

The etymology is given as: "Origin uncertain; probably RASH v.3 (compare sense 1 at that entry) + -ER suffix1, the original sense perhaps being �slice� or �cut�, or perhaps referring to the practice of scoring a slice of meat before grilling or frying it"

So you would not be wrong to refer to a rasher of beef, but people would look at you funny.

[Lakitu]

Maybe people look at him funny anyway :o)

[Buenchico]

It seems that the answer is lost in the depths of time. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word 'rasher' has been around since (at least) the 16th century, but its origin is unknown.

It's just one of those weird things in the English language, such as the fact that our word 'ambulance' (which we nowadays expect to travel as fast as possible) is derived from the Latin verb for 'to walk' ;-)

Chris