Have you ever wondered where the brand namesake of the iconic Maltese beer ‘CISK’ comes from? And why we’re always associating rich people with ‘Cisk’?
Well, linguist Kurt has taken to the task of explaining its origin. Kurt begins his video explaining that the origin story goes farther back than the beer’s 1929 release.
The word ‘CISK’ was the nickname of marquis Ġiuseppe Scicluna, who founded the first private bank in Malta in 1840.
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According to Farsons, bank clients initially preferred coins but eventually transitioned to paying with cheques.
People eventually started to hear the word ‘ċeks’ – however, this word proved to be problematic to pronounce for those who did not know English too well. The word thus experienced two changes:
The sound of an ‘e’ became ‘i’ whereas the letters ‘k’ and ’s’ switched places. These are examples of ‘metateżi’ (petrol becoming petlor). The Cisk became so associated with Scicluna that it became his nickname.
This is in turn an example of metonymy, which is the substitution of the name of an attribute for that of the thing meant.
This is why we use the word Castille when referring to the office of the prime minister. Fast forward to 1928 and Scicluna’s bank has taken control of the company with a license to produce beer.
One of these beers was named CISK in honour of the founder, eventually becoming the Farsons we know today.
Did you know about this history?
#MaltaDaily
