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One of the most persistent of etymological fictions is that the sirloin got its name because a particular English king found the joint of beef so excellent that he knighted it. The monarch in question has been variously identified as Henry VIII, James I, and Charles II, but none of these is chronologically possible, and in fact the story has no truth in it at all. The spelling sir-, which began to replace the original sur- (from Old French sur "above") in the 18th century, no doubt owes something to the "knighting" story.
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