Coffee and tea

The thirteenth entry is o moinho de mós, and the small word that closes it is one of the oldest in any kitchen. A mó is the millstone, the round grinding stone, and it continues the Latin mola with almost nothing worn away; from the same root come moer, to grind, and a moagem, which stands in the entry just above, o grau de moagem. English owns that stone three times over and recognises it in none of them. « A mill » is molinum, the building where the mola turned. « A molar » is dens molaris, the grinding tooth, named after the stone rather than after the jaw. And « to immolate » was immolare, to sprinkle a victim with the coarse salted meal that had come off that same stone, before the killing; the sprinkling fell out of the word and only the sacrifice stayed. So a burr grinder, the tooth at the back of the mouth and a Roman altar all turn on one stone. Portuguese kept it in a single syllable, a mó, and grinds with it still.