In researching the origin of the word stromboli for the hot meat-filled Italian sandwich that is a feature at many pizzerias, the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary found their way to a cryptic entry in the April 10, 1950, copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
There, on page 21, in the “It’s Happening Here” column by Frank Brookhouser, was this tidbit: “In South Philadelphia, the hogie is now called the Stromboli.” (Hogie was the accepted spelling of hoagie in The Inquirer until a few years later.)
