Orts and Other Bits of Food

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Veronica.

Where are you calling from, Veronica?

San Diego, California.

Oh, San Diego, I know it well.

You must be neighbors.

We are indeed.

What is going on?

Well, my brother and I were raised with my mom, and she was taught from a young age to leave what is called an ort on your plate after dinner.

So it’s basically a small, yes, O-R-T. It’s basically a small piece of your meal. And she said it was dinner etiquette. And we have no idea where it’s from. My grandmother’s sisters had never heard it before either. So it’s kind of a family mystery that my brother and I really would love to know the answer to.

Before we get into this, let me ask you, Veronica, do you also leave an ort on your plate now as an adult as a bit of etiquette at dinner?

It’s something I think about. I don’t necessarily know if I’m very proactive with it, but it is something that crosses my mind.

How interesting. So an ort being the last little bit of food on your plate.

Correct.

Well, it turns out that the word ort is a really old word. It’s been around since at least the 15th century. And in Middle English, it referred to the fodder that farm animals haven’t yet eaten.

You know, the stuff that they leave behind. And it may come from a Dutch word we don’t know, meaning to leave behind.

But ort is an old, old word that means a fragment or a leftover, as you said. And it’s been used metaphorically by lots of different writers over the years.

Virginia Woolf famously wrote about scraps, orts, and fragments. And in fact, Shakespeare used the word ort a couple of times in his work, talking about the orts of someone’s love, meaning, you know, the last little bits of it.

And D.H. Lawrence wrote about orts and slarts. Slarts is an old word that means leftovers as well.

And I’m interested that she talked about it in terms of being mannerly. Because sometimes we call that last little piece the manners bit. The idea being that you don’t ever want your host to think that they didn’t make enough food for you.

So you always leave a little bit.

Yeah, that little manners bit.

Okay, well, that would totally make sense then.

Yeah, there you go.

Or the manners piece, or sometimes even it’s just called the manners. You might say, don’t take the manners, or I’ll eat the manners, or leave the manners in the dish.

But I’m really interested that the word ort survived in your family, because we really don’t hear it that much. We usually see it. If you do a lot of crossword puzzles, it’s a really handy word for crossword puzzles.

Oh, good to know.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much for that explanation. It does put the rest of family mystery.

Thanks for calling, Veronica. We appreciate it.

Glad to do it.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I’m thinking about Martha’s Orts.

You had a blog at one time, Martha’s Orts.

Yeah, about 100 years ago.

Back when blogs were a thing.

I think it must have been like 2004, 2006, something like that.

Yeah, I had a blog called Martha Barnette’s Orts, which were the leftovers. Leftovers, the things that I was researching that I didn’t have any place else to put.

Yeah, maybe your commonplace, right? Your commonplace blog was a place to put your orts.

Yes.

Language and culture and folklore and custom, they all go hand in hand. And we’d love to hear the intersection of those things in your world, no matter where you are in the world. 877-929-9673 is toll free in the US and Canada. Or you can write us an email, words@waywordradio.org.