a wordThe hole
also: the middle · the ring
Sold by the bag, named for the part that is missing.
The absence in the middle of a ring donut, and the argument about who first made one.
First seen. ring doughnut claimed by Hanson Gregory for 1847; two-circle cutters in production by 1870
The thing sold as a donut hole is the dough taken out, not the space left. Cited · wp-doughnut
The story Cited · wp-doughnut
Hanson Gregory, an American sailor, claimed he invented the ring in 1847 aboard a lime-trading ship at sixteen, punching the middle out with the ship's tin pepper box because he disliked greasy dough and raw centres, and teaching his mother the trick. The Smithsonian has his mother, Elizabeth Gregory, making a deep-fried dough that used his spice cargo — nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon rind.
Other readings compete. Michael Krondl suggests the ring came off recipes calling for a jumble, a ring-shaped cookie already in use. Linda Civitello writes the hole was invented because it let the donut cook faster. By 1870 a two-circle cutter was in production and the question became academic.
The particulars
| part of speech | noun |
|---|---|
| region | The United States |
| confidence | high · updated 2026-09-16 |
Who it runs with
Who talks about it
Where we got it
- Doughnut — Wikipedia · link
Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.