Barb in Omaha, Nebraska, heard a Thanksgiving guest praise the turkey tail as the bishop’s nose, the fatty little bump at the bird’s rear. The older name is the pope’s nose, known since the 18th century. Later clerical cousins include bishop’s nose, parson’s nose, and preacher’s nose, perhaps helped by a resemblance to a nose or a miter. A story linking pope’s nose to anti-Catholic feeling after James II is possible but unproved. Earthier names include the last part over the fence and the north end of a chicken flying south. French has le sot-l’y-laisse, roughly the morsel only a fool leaves behind. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “At Thanksgiving, “Bishop’s Nose” Means the Fatty Tail Bump on a Turkey”
Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Barb Slater in Omaha, Nebraska.
Hey, Barb, welcome to the show.
What’s going on, Barb?
I have a question. I was at a Thanksgiving dinner, and nice people who invited me, and we were talking about favorite parts of the turkey, and I said skin, of course. But one of the ladies there, my friend Martha, said the bishop’s nose, and I stared at her with big blank eyes, and finally they told me it’s the tail of the turkey, and I had never heard that expression before, and I was wondering where that came from, the bishop’s nose.
Aha. Well, the older version is the pope’s nose. And that’s been around since the 18th century. And the bishop’s nose came later because that part of the turkey does look like a nose, right?
It does, yeah. If you think about it. And is it about holding the turkey upright? It kind of looks like a bishop’s miter, like the hat that they wear or like the pope’s hat?
No, it looks like a nose to me. The nose looks like the nose at the bottom of a hat, though, kind of. You’ve turned the turkey upright, doesn’t it? Or the chicken upright?
Yeah. You know what it reminds me of is a Monty Python thing with one of the crazy, or maybe it was Prince’s Bride with a crazy bishop that couldn’t do the ceremony.
Oh, yeah. It was Prince’s Bride with the lisp.
Yeah, the lisp. Well, I’ve always thought that if you just cut it off and put it up to your nose, it looks like a nose. Like a very fine, real nose.
Yeah. So there are lots of different versions of it. The Parsons nose is sort of the Protestant version. Preacher’s nose. Preacher’s nose. Yep. All these nosy things.
Is it just in one area? Because it seems like, you know, I’m originally from Colorado, and I had never heard of this before. But boy, when you say it out here in the Midwest, everybody knows.
Is that right? That’s interesting. It’s got a long history, right?
It does. Way back in the U.K., all throughout the British Isles. Shows up in the English-speaking world pretty much here and there.
Is it named after a particular pope or bishop? Well, there’s a story that goes that it was named as the result of anti-Catholic feeling after the reign of James II. But I don’t know if that’s true or not.
I also read that part of it might have to do is, of course, it was originally for a chicken because it predates turkeys being widely eaten throughout the English-speaking world. Was that the idea is that you might only put a chicken on the table if your local clergyman was coming over. So that might have a little bit to lend to why you would call it the Pope’s nose, the preacher’s nose.
That’s like the Italian pasta strozza preti, which is really thick, and it means it strangles the priest. Because you would stuff the priest when he happened to show up for lunch on Sundays.
But yeah, the Pope’s nose or the Parson’s nose. Do you like that particular part of the turkey?
No, not really. But I just, I like the name, the Bishop’s nose, and it just made me laugh.
Go ahead. Sorry, because usually it’s just, you know, the last part over the fence, you know.
Yeah, that’s another name for it. That’s a very common name for it. Yeah, or the north end of a chicken flying south or something, or turkey flying south, something like that.
It occurs to me there’s one other term for this in French, le soleilesse, which literally means something like only a silly person wouldn’t eat it.
Oh. Well, there you go, Barb. It’s widespread. It’s not just you. And I agree. It’s very vivid, very colorful.
Yeah. Thank you guys so much for being a good reference place.
Happy to help. Thanks for calling the library desk.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
Actually, no, the show is called A Way with Words. We answer questions from around the country and around the world about language and slang and family sayings. And we’re also away with birds.
Away with birds, yeah. And anything to get Martha to tell stories about Aunt Maiso in North Carolina.
877-929-9673 and email words@waywordradio.org.
I always thought that “le sot l’y laisse” refers to the chicken oyster(s), the two little round morsels of chicken meat at the lower back of a chicken near the thigh. Easy to miss (or forget) when you cut up a chicken (or other poultry for that matter)?