Nice blog idea! I look forward to your future posts.
Homen-tashn is actually a Yiddish word, so the word "mon" should be ascribed to Yiddish, I think. Also, the "hey-hayediah" addition to "mon-tashn" has never satisfied me, and I think real linguists are suspicious of it too (I have to go find a reference). Why would a hey get added to the front of a word without a good reason? I can't think of other Yiddish words this holds true for.
Of course you're right - it comes from Yiddish. In my rush to explain the etymology, I skipped the main language.
As far as the "hey-hayediah" - I don't know enough about Yiddish to take a stand one way or another. One other approach is taken by Stahl, who claims that mohn is spelled in Hebrew letters mem-hey-nun, and with time the letters switched to hey-mem-nun.
There is also an interesting theory that the nature of Haman's persecution of the Jews was actually that he was a tax farmer; this would make the connection between Haman and tax even more appropriate. :o)
That is an interesting theory! But Haman is villified enough - do we really have to associate him with taxes? ;)
Because it doesn't seem to be showing the trackback, I just thought I'd note that in my blog I covered the topic of hamentaschen (and אוזני המן) extensively, focusing on their origin and a little how that relates to the word's original meaning.
Wow - that was extensive! Very interesting...
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