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There are several conflicting theories about the origin of mayonnaise, among them that it is an alteration of bayonnaise, as if the sauce originated in Bayonne, in southwestern France; that it was derived from the French verb manier 'to stir'; and that it goes back to Old French mayou 'egg yolk'. But the early variant spelling mahonnaise suggests that it originally meant literally 'of Mahon', and that the sauce was so named to commemorate the taking of Port Mahon, the capital of the island of Minorca, by the duc de Richelieu in 1756.
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