Today I found myself pondering the origin of alfredo sauce. I speculated that it might have a similar meaning to al dente pasta, which translates to “to the tooth”, but I was stumped by the term fredo. It turns out that alfredo sauce is named after a person. The dish was created by Alfredo di Lelio in Rome during the early 20th century, and its popularity led to it being named after him. The name Alfredo originates from Old English roots, with “aelf” meaning “elf” and “raed” meaning “advice”. Aelf, the etymon of the English word elf, can be traced back to Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European roots, meaning “white”. Raed can be traced back to Proto-Germanic “redaz” and ultimately reconstructed to Proto-Indo-European “hrehd”, meaning “think”.
