Gorp, scroggin / Studentenfutter

The weblog transubstantiation discusses translating the Polish term for Studentenfutter into English:

An interesting phrase is the Polish mieszanka studencka which is the well-known and popular mix of peanuts, hazelnuts, cashews, almonds and raisins. A logical equivalent would be student mix, however, this term does not exist in English.

One American equivalent is trail mix, also known as gorp, or (says World Wide Words) scroggin, in the Antipodes.

It seems that many people believe gorp is an acronym (for good old raisins and peanuts, or for Granola, oatmeal, raisins and peanuts, or even grape, orange, raspberry and pineapple) and even scroggin is believed to be an acronym for sultanas, currants, raisins, orange, ginger and nuts).

Incidentally, transubstantiation says that student food is the term in Britain. I haven’t encountered it. Wikipedia says it refers to mixtures of nuts only. And there is a place where a locally sold mixture of chocolate (M & Ms, raisins and peanuts) is called crap.

I fear that treating it as an acronym would narrow one’s mix. That needn’t be the case if you order your own muesli from the German startup www.mymuesli.com. They do have an English site but they don’t (yet) ship outside Germany.

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