Food technology

The thirteenth entry is análise de perigos, and the English word that stands where o perigo stands began life on a gaming table. « Hazard » came in through Old French hasard, which the French had from the Spanish azar, a name for the throw of a die taken in turn from Arabic. For centuries « hazard » was a dice game played in taverns, and the noun meant a chance, a risk run for the fun of running it. French kept that reading and has never let it go: « le hasard » is still plain chance and nothing worse. English let the danger swallow the chance, so that a hazard is now a thing that can hurt you — a fire hazard, a trip hazard, the hazard lights on a car, and the hazards of a golf course, which are the only ones still shaped like a wager. Two survivals give the old sense away. To « hazard a guess » is to risk one, not to endanger anybody. And « haphazard » puts hap, luck, in front of the same word: luck upon luck, which is exactly why it means in no order at all. O perigo, from periculum, carries none of this and never gambled.