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Growing up in Northern Indiana, my dad says that most people he knew as a kid called the two ends of a bread loaf "krunkas" (spelled phonetically; krunkas being plural). His hometown consisted of a large Polish population, and he suspects that the word is Polish. Of course, I get odd looks for calling it that, but it is more fun to say than "end of the bread loaf."
I am wondering:
A) Is krunka really the Polish word for this?
B) If so, how do I spell it?
C) If not, is this even a "real" word, or has my dad just messing with my mind all these years?
Thanks.
Hi, Amanda. I forget if I mentioned this on our show about Family Words a while back, but in his book of the same name, Paul Dickson mentions having collected from various families the names “bumper,” “truna,” and “tumpee” for that part of a loaf. I know we have some Polish speakers who visit the forum, so maybe we'll get an answer soon about "krunkas."
Growing up in Wisconsin, like Jackie, we often called it the "heel" too. But my mom made her own bread, and nobody liked the end pieces (this was the pre-Wonder Bread era). So she usually just trimmed a thin slice off the end and fed it to the birds. Hence, at least in my house, we also referred to the end as simply the "crust."
Martha Barnette
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Grant Barrett
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