[dagw]

Slightly off topic, but what is actually "canola oil". I thought it was just the US name for Rapeseed oil, but the reputation it has in the US seems extremely negative. Rapeseed oil is equally common throughout much of Europe and I've never heard anybody here say anything particularly negative about it here, certainly nobody claiming that it's categorically worse than any other oil.

[Lazare]

Yes. Canola is, basically, the edible type of rapeseed oil. The name was originally a trademark, but is now a generic term. Australia and NZ also call it "canola", but it's the same oil either way, and it's fairly decent, as far as vegetable oils go.

[dfrage]

Per Wikipedia, "the name was a condensation of "Can" from Canada and "ola" from other vegetable oils like Mazola".

[polyfather]

Thanks for this. For most of my life I thought it was a sort-of acronym for "CANada Oil, Low Acid" (as it's lower in acid than other rapeseed oils). Your etymology is the correct one.