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This mystery word came up during the program on Feb 26, 2011. The caller's family uses it to refer to the heel of a loaf of bread. The callers family came from the area around Oil City, PA, which might suggest Pennsylania Dutch as a possible origin for the word.
Several years ago I was having lunch with a colleague from Munich, Germany. As we started eating our salads he remarked, “I like the salad. It is very… oh… I don't know how to say it in English.†I suggested he try the German word and he said something very close to “Krunkenâ€, which I understood to mean “crunchy.†He confirmed this translation. I haven't heard this word since then, and I haven't found it in any German dictionaries, but it seems possible that in some German enclaves this word came to be used to describe the heel of a loaf of bread, which can sometimes be very crunchy.
Hi Martha and Grant,
My heritage is Polish - (I grew up in N.E. PA - almost to Binghamton, NY) - I live in San Diego, now.
I remember my Grandmother (who spoke Polish) calling the heal of bread "scutka."
"Scutka" phonetically pronounced skoot-ka - but the double "o" is pronounced like the sound in the word "foot."
Not a double "O" like the sound in "tune."
I have no idea how to spell it. I still use it.
I'm pretty certain it's a Polish word. I have done no research on it.
And it resembles Krunken at least with the K.
Thanks for the fun and memories.
I'm Polish, currently residing and teaching literature and linguistics in the US. In Polish, we have two words for a bread's heel: *przylepka* (a little *sticker*?) and much less formal *dupka* (a little butt), incidentally also my favorite part of bread (European style bread, not American, let me add). *Przylepa* (sometimes also *przylepka*) is also a word of affection used when talking about a cute child or a small child who often likes to cling to/touch his/her parent/relative.
The word spelled here as *krunken* (its pronunciation in the program sounded like *crunka* to me) reminds me of the Polish word *kromka* (a slice [of bread]), which is related semantically to bread but not specifically to its heel. In German, *die Krume* stands for a crumb while the adjective *krumm* means crooked/bent, which might provide some lead in this investigation.
Let's see how it'll develop 🙂
I agree with Azoox that the -KA ending suggests a Slavic word, and I checked with a few native speakers of Russian. The Russian word for the end piece of a loaf of bread is KOPKA — "korka" — with a basic meaning that translates variously as rind, shell, skin, crust. This seems pretty close to "krunka", but it would require some significant phonetic shift. Is it possible the word was misheard or changed over time?
In Russian, KPOMKA, the cognate of the Polish word above, means edge, hem, selvage. These meanings would appear to be very close to the heel of a loaf of bread — and the word would sound very close to "krunka" in English — but the Russian speakers I checked with never heard of using that word for the end piece of bread.
My wife is of German and Polish ancestry and her granparents and parents called the loaf heel a "krunke" (pronounced "krunka", but I mentally spell it with an "e"). She was thrilled to hear someone else use this and wanted me to write in. I'm slavic, but no one im my family can recall a specific term for this.
I grew up in Cajun country in South Louisiana. If the bread was store-bought loaf bread, it was "the end pieces" and was generally scorned. If, however, it was a wonderful loaf of French bread, it was the "nose" and was highly prized. Often the "nose" of the bread did not make it from the bakery back to the house, as it would be torn off while still piping hot and eaten en route. When freshly baked, the outside was crusty, crunchy, and delicious, while the inside was ethereally light, soft, and melted in your mouth. MMM!
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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