Transcript of “Manavalins”
We’ve talked before about the term orts, which means leftovers, but there’s another wonderful term that also means odds and ends, whether it’s leftover food or small change or miscellaneous items, and that word is manavalins.
It’s just a lovely word to say, manavalins. Manavalins.
Spell that for me.
Well, Herman Melville spelled it M-A-N-A-V-A-L-I-N-S. That’s the most common spelling. There are several other spellings.
What’s really interesting about this word is that it may derive from a bit of nautical slang because there’s a verb, manarvel, which means to pilfer from a ship’s store.
So you can just picture all these sneaky sailors developing a word like manavalins to denote the things that they’ve manarveled. Manarvel and manavalins. I love it.
I remember as a boy manarveling cookies when I was not supposed to be eating between meals.
And you didn’t leave any orts either, I bet.
No, no.
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