Carl Sandburg once observed, “The woman who’ll kiss and tell is small as the little end of nothing.” He meant she lacked character, although the phrase the little end of nothing and variations of have long been used to mean something that’s literally tiny. In an 1826 newspaper, for example, something exceedingly small is described as small as the little end of nothing whittled off to a point. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Little End of Nothing”
I was reading some Carl Sandburg and he said,
The woman who will kiss and tell is small as the little end of nothing.
And I thought that was such a cool expression to describe someone who’s really small.
Small as the little end of nothing.
But it turns out that he didn’t come up with that expression.
Small as the little end of nothing.
Oh, no? Has that got some legs to it, some leg to it?
It definitely has legs to it.
In fact, I started digging on it, and I saw a lot of elaborations on it,
Including one from a newspaper in 1826 that was
Small as the little end of nothing whittled off to a point.
How about that?
That’s small.
Well, in the Sandberg piece, you say that it’s about a woman who kisses and tells,
And so she might be somebody who’s not trustworthy, right?
Yeah, it’s interesting that you bring that up,
Because I’ve seen a lot of uses of small as the little end of nothing,
Referring to somebody’s character, you know, not very trustworthy.
But it’s also been used to suggest something that’s just really tiny, you know,
Maybe the runt of a litter or something.
Small is the little end of nothing.
Yeah, calling someone small in character reminds me of calling someone a little man,
Which is a way of referring to their masculinity, of course,
But also a way of talking about they’re not big of heart and big of spirit and big in generosity.
Small as the little end of nothing whittled off to a point.
I mean, you can’t get any smaller than that.
That’s minute.
That’s an atom.
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