MDMD2: Ort

[Dave Monroe]

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

The tinier the point of the needle, the more easily it goes through.
The thinner the blade of the sword, the more swiftly it cuts through.
Often the same goes for words. A short, potent word helps convey an
idea in just a few letters. This week we'll feature a few
single-syllable words, and in the spirit of the week's theme, we'll
keep this paragraph short.

And we begin with a word that's even shorter than short: ort.

ort

PRONUNCIATION: (ort)

MEANING: noun: A scrap of food left after a meal.

ETYMOLOGY: Of Germanic origin, ultimately from the Indo-European roots
ud- (out) and ed- (to eat).

USAGE: "On the table in front of him was a plate, a few orts of supper
nosed round by a pair of cats." Bill Mesce Jr; Officer of the Court;
Bantam Books; 2002.

http://wordsmith.org/words/ort.html

Recall ...

"'Peace, Grandam,-- reclaim thy Ort.  The Learned One has yet to sink
quite that low.'  The Dog, with an expressive swing of his Head, makes
a dignified Exit, no more than one wag of the Tail per step." (M&D,
Ch. 3, p. 26)

Cf. James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) ...

"I told him that I had dined lately at [Samuel] Foote's.  'Pray, Sir,
is not Foote an infidel?'
JOHNSON. 'I do not know, Sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he
be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to
say, he has never thought upon the subject.' BOSWELL. 'I suppose, Sir,
he has thought superficially, and seized the first notions which
occured to his mind.'  JOHNSON. 'Why then, Sir, still he is like a
dog, that snatches the piece next him.  Did you never observe that
dogs have not the power of comparing?  A dog will take a small bit of
meat as readily as a large, when both are before him.'"

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=59965