Like Death Eating a Nab

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

This is Ollie. I’m calling from Virginia.

Listen to you guys all the time. Very excited to join in.

Well, we are pleased to punch to have you on the show.

Thank you.

When I was growing up, I had a friend, and this was late high school, early college, which was back in the late 60s, early 70s.

And they used a phrase that I have never heard anyone else say before.

No one in their family, no one in my family grew up in the same town, same surroundings.

The phrase means something similar to rode hard and put up wet.

And she would use it to describe, for instance, if you’ve been out playing tennis and it’s a very hot day and you’re tired and you’re sweaty and you’re grimy and you’re just exhausted and you looked at it.

She would look at you and say, you look like death eating on a nab.

And that’s never made any sense to me whatsoever.

You know, the only time I’ve ever heard the word nab used is we used to refer to the little toasty crackers, the little crackers with the peanut butter in them made by Lance and Tom’s.

We call those nabs, and that I believe was after the Nabisco company that actually made the first little cracker ones.

But death eating on a nab I’ve never heard before, and I listen to your show all the time, and I thought I would call and see what you thought.

So that’s nab N-A-B, right?

N-A-B as in boy.

Yeah, those little square snack crackers that usually come in a six-pack.

And you say nab, and I just hear the thud of one of them in a vending machine.

That’s how I used to get it back in the day.

It used to be a nickel, now they’re $3 or something.

Oh, right.

Yeah, same thing.

Right.

And a lot of them are sort of a fluorescent orange with a little bit of peanut butter on the inside.

Exactly.

Very, very healthy.

Yes.

Yes.

Really good for you.

It’s one of some definitions of healthy.

Yes.

Very interesting.

Have you ever heard the expression, you look like death eaten on a cracker?

Never.

Okay.

But I could see how that would relate.

But no, I’ve never heard that.

Yeah, yeah, that’s the much more common one.

And maybe your friend was just being creative and individual.

But yeah, the expression, you look like death eaten on a cracker, is just this humorous elaboration of saying you look terrible.

Saying you look, you know, you could just say you look like death, but to make it fun and colorful, we say things like, you look like death warmed over.

Or you look like death on toast.

Or you look like death eating a cookie.

Or back in the 40s, Ralph Ellison in his book Invisible Man used the phrase like death eating a sandwich.

You know, because if you’re talking about death, this sort of softens it, right?

Well, I guess you eat enough nabs.

Headed that way pretty soon.

Yeah, that orange glow of hell’s fires dooming you look like death.

That’s right. And the stuff all between your teeth and everything, you know, it’s just great, yeah.

Well, Ollie, thank you so much for your call.

We really appreciate it. Take care of yourself.

Bye-bye. Great talking with you. You too. See you.

Okay. Bye, guys. Bye-bye. Bye.

Well, wash that cracker out of your mouth and give us a call, 877-929-9673.

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