Why this word is great
GARUM — [Noun] A pungent, umami-rich fish sauce fermented from salted fish intestines and blood, the ketchup of Ancient Rome. From Latin garum, from Ancient Greek γάρον (gáron, "the fish whose intestines were originally used in the condiment's production"), it was the concentrated essence of maritime decay, bottled. Unlike liquamen (a catch-all term for fish sauce, possibly thinner or cruder) or colatura di alici (its delicate, anchovy-bound descendant), garum was a luxury, an alchemy of rot and time. It is the slick bronze spoon dipping into a clay amphora, the faint reek of a Pompeiian taverna, the invisible depth in a mouthful of honeyed dormice—proof that even the most repellent transformations can become sublime.