To noodle meaning “to think on” is so-named because it from noddle, an old word for “head,” and not because a brain looks like a clump of pasta noodles. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “To Noodle with Your Noddle”
Hi there. You have A Way with Words.
Hello. This is Allison.
Hey, Allison. Where are you calling us from?
Kalamazoo, Michigan.
So my brother recently asked me where my family got the word to noodle. And I’ve used it for as long as I can remember. Though I remember there was a website a long time ago called Noodle Bib. And maybe that’s where I got it from, but we use it to mean to think on, to ponder, that kind of thing. Like, let me noodle on that for a while. And I really don’t know if that’s been a word used for that, you know, outside of my family or not.
A lot of people are under the impression that to use your noodle refers to the appearance of brains looking like a pile of noodles.
Oh, okay. I never thought that. I thought cauliflower.
But it doesn’t come from that. It doesn’t have anything to do with its appearance. It comes from an older word, noddle, N-O-D-D-L-E, which is more in line with the idea of a node, N-O-D-E. Or a knot, K-N-O-T, not quite that.
So it’s not related to noodle as in the culinary item at all, nothing to do with pasta.
And you have older forms of the expression to use your nottle, N-O-D-D-L-E, from the 1850s to link to use your nottle.
Is that like noggin?
No, that’s a different word altogether still.
Oh, okay.
But obviously people always knew that if your head was injured that you became ditzy. And so people always knew that the head was somehow connected to being intelligent. So many, many sayings have come about over the years telling you to use your head in some form or another.
But one interesting facet of noddle is that it also developed a secondary meaning of being a fool. But eventually, once noodles became more common in English-speaking cultures, the spelling of the food item kind of collided with the spelling of noddle, meaning your head.
Sure.
And the food item spelling took over the head, meaning.
Yeah, I can understand that.
Yeah.
So not unique to your family at all.
Yep.
All right.
To noodle.
Well, I love your show.
Thank you so much.
All right.
Take care, Allison.
Be well.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
If you’re wondering if a word is unique to your family, you can give us a call to talk about it, 877-929-9673.
