MMM, leftovers
I recently encountered a very strange word (don’t ask how) that had me scratching my head. It is as awesome as it is mystifying. The word I’m talking about is, wait for it…
Tittynope.
Yes, you read that correctly. Tittynope. It is defined on the Merriam-Webster website as: a small amount of anything that is left over. From what I’ve gathered, it’s mostly just applicable to food, similar to the word ‘Ort’. So that leftover chicken from last night, that’s sitting in your refrigerator? That’s tittynope. You have tittynope in your fridge. Don’t you just hate when your mom serves tittynope for dinner? As you can tell, it’s really fun to use in context, especially when your 11-year-old male mind runs free.
“Excuse me, waiter, may I have a box for my tittynope?” Next time you’re at a restaurant, try that and watch your waiter or waitress’s facial expression. If they are dedicated enough to their job and too polite to ask what that is, they may just go looking around the restaurant for some kind of nipple container, probably not though. They will likely just call you a pig, but still, it’s worth a try.
My biggest question about this word is, where the Hell did it originate from? M-W doesn’t give word history, and Dictionary.com hasn’t heard of it. What was the situation that created this word?
I can just imagine some guy eating a pizza, and after he finishes, there is a little piece of leftover pepperoni on his plate.
His friend then walks up, out of the blue, and asks: “Hey, is that a titty?”
And then the guy who ate the pizza goes: “Nope.”
Then the other friend thinks to himself: Hmm, Tittynope.
Then, boom, leftover food regularly starts getting called tittynope, and somehow this word makes it all the way into the dictionary. Although, I’ve never met anyone who actually knew the meaning of it, or has even heard of it for that matter. So, I am going to try to change that, one use of the word at a time.
All this writing has made me hungry for a little snack, and I can see that my friend has some tittynope on his plate. Anyway, you should be ashamed of what you’ve been thinking. 😉
Wow kind of says it all. 🙂
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I couldn’t do anything with this week’s Flash Fiction photo prompt, so I wimped out with a Word Of the Week, instead. 🙂
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Well you’ve got me laughing totally out loud now.
I think I shall use it on my boys later,…
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They’ll probably love it. All boys are 10 or 11 years old….no matter what their age. 🙄
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Don’t I know it!
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Made me laugh for the day.
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My mission was a success then. More intentional humor coming mid-next week. 😆
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“Tittynope” seems destined to have it place in history. However, there are other words that have been unfairly forgotten. “Hermi” needs to be resurrected to serve its anointed purpose, which is unfulfilled by any other word in English. It dates back to at least the mid-60s, as can be attested by astronaut Norman Thagard. (I love to drop names.) It’s a unit of volume that fits perfectly into the English system of units and measures. Its precision and universality make it suitable for inclusion in the metric system also. What more compact way is there of saying “mouth-and-a-half-full”? It’s a word whose time has come to once again bask in the full glory of the sun.
This brings up another useful phrase: “hapax legomenon”, meaning something that is only said once. Really. Would I put you on? I know I’m preaching to the choir again, since I know your readers probably drop this into their conversation at least on a weekly basis, as do I. It seems no matter how hard I try, everyone’s always two steps ahead of me.
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I’ve dropped that Hapless LegoMan so many times that I refuse to pick him up any more. That’s why I’m still a step behind you. 😆
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Just noticing — what is the penalty for splitting an infinitive?
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Nothing….as long as you serve it with green pepper and onion chunks, and lots of barbecue sauce. 😉 😆
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Damn it! I thought I was through. It turns out that “hermi” has other meanings if you’re not constricted to English. Look at the happy grin on this guy’s statue.
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermi
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Yeah, I’d smile too. 😀 😀
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