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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread An extra word #70849 05/22/2002 10:38 PM Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 wwh Carpal Tunnel wwh Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 13,858 May I with humility endue AWADtalk with an extra word for today: "lagniappe" We picked up one excellent word," wrote Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi (1883), "a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word—lagniappe. . . . It is Spanish—so they said." Twain encapsulates the history of lagniappe quite nicely. English speakers learned the word from French-speaking Louisianians, but they in turn had adapted it from the American Spanish "la napa." Twain went on to describe how New Orleanians completed shop transactions by saying "Give me something for a lagniappe," to which the shopkeeper would respond with "a bit of liquorice-root, . . . a cheap cigar or a spool of thread." It took a while for lagniappe to catch on throughout the country, but by the mid-20th century, New Yorkers and New Orleanians alike were familiar with this "excellent word." Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: An extra word #70850 05/22/2002 10:47 PM Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Wordwind Carpal Tunnel Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 6,296 Piedmont Region of Virginia, U... Wouldn't it be nice if we could all end each post with a lagniappe of word--a word to take away from the reading of the post and suck on mentally (or chew) like a piece of licorice? What a challenge! Of course, we could use the same lagniappe lots of times since shop owners don't have to change the lagniappe for each sale. I should be doing my final papers, but instead I thought to come here and see whether there was something to perk up my anxiety in writing (laced with lethargy--try that combination on for size!). So, wwh, I'll leave you with a sweet-sailing lagniappe for posting that bit of Twain: Xebec WordWind-in-the-Sails Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary

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