sirloin [LME16th] The name sirloin for a choice cut of beef dates from the late Middle Ages. It came from French, and the first element is from French sur ‘above’, because it is the upper part of the loin. The later spelling with sir- has led to false associations with *sir and various folk etymology accounts of a king knighting the roast for its excellence, dubbing it ‘Sir Loin’. A mid 17th-century source mentions a tradition that the monarch in question was Henry VIII. Jonathan Swift, on the other hand, names James I, while yet another account attributes the action to Charles II. We can be reasonably certain that it was none of them.