Sophia: Why is it called a toilet paper roll?
Me: Um…because it’s a roll.
Sophia: Well what is a roll then?
Me: A thing that’s rolled up.
Sophia: Oh. 🤔 Then why is a little piece of bread called a roll?
This lead me (of course!) to etymonline.com (which has a new much more readable mobile site by the way) where I learned that roll as bread predates roll as a verb by 200 years. So it apparently isn’t a “roll” because you roll it, but rather because it is a little roll of dough. And a little roll of dough is definitely something Isabel would call “so cute!”
This has been Etymology With My Children. I hope you enjoyed it.