Stub Your Toe or Stump Your Toe?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Luke Whiting from Waco, Texas.

Hey, Luke, welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

I had a really interesting conversation a couple weeks ago with one of my co-workers. So he was telling the story about how growing up, if his mom made, you know, a bowl of chili or something, and his dad would say, man, you really stumped your toe on this. And growing up, he always thought that meant like it was a good thing. But then just recently, so years, years later, he asked his mom about it, and she’s like, no, that meant that he didn’t like it, that he messed up. You did something bad.

And so my first question is, have you ever heard that phrase, like someone saying, man, you really stumped your toe on this one for something that you messed up on? And my follow-up question is, I was always raised saying you stub your toe. But he, you stump the same way whenever you hit your toe on something. And he would say, man, I stumped my toe. And I had never heard it being that way either. So, one, I’ve never heard that phrase being used to talk about something else. And I’ve never even heard of anyone stumping a toe.

Okay. So two layers here. Now, who is stumping their toe? Who is saying this?

My coworker.

Your coworker. Gotcha. Yep. And where is your coworker from?

A little town called San Saba, Texas in the Hill Country.

Hill Country, Texas. All right. That makes a lot of sense. All right. Let’s take the stump your toe versus stub your toe first. It turns out that stump your toe has a couple hundred years of history in the United States. As a matter of fact, the great lexicographer Noah Webster recorded in his dictionaries in the 1820s as an American variant, although he looked upon it as a vulgar variant, I think, in his words. But it’s been around for a very long time. And in the American South and in the American South Midlands, that is those states in the middle of the country which touch the northern part of the U.S. South, you’re more likely to hear it. You stump your toe if you are walking in the house at night and you bang your toe on a piece of furniture rather than stub your toe. So it’s been around for a very long time and it’s not going to seem strange at all to some folks. Stub your toe is far more common, though. But both are acceptable.

Now, as far as being related to how you cook food, it turns out that you’re plugging into something that Martha and I talked about on the show not that long ago, which is to put your foot into it. And this means to cook something particularly well. So you might say, this fish supper is amazing. She really put her foot into it. You ever heard that?

Yes, that I have heard. So you’re saying that sometimes people will say you stumped your toe or stubbed your toe to mean that they cooked something not so well.

Exactly. Yeah. They had somehow, you know, too spicy or too salty.

Yes. They somehow messed it up.

Yes. That’s exactly right. And the metaphor there is because you’ll say you’re holding the spice container or the salt container. And let’s say you kind of trip a little bit in the kitchen and you dash a little bit too much of something into the bowl or into the pot. You add it a little bit more by accident. So your food ends up a little too spicy or a little too salty or just not right.

Now, occasionally, somebody will say you stumped your toe when cooking to mean it turned out unexpectedly well. You did something of a little more, you added a little more of something on accident, but you’re not sure what, and it turned out unexpectedly well.

Someone went on to something good there, yeah.

Yeah, you’re on to something good, but you don’t know what you did right. But in any case, it was accidental. So banging your toe, in other words, if you’re talking about cooking, could be good or it could be bad, right?

Yeah. But either way, it’s still about it’s an accidental thing that happened. Your coworker is completely fine with their usage. Now, it may not be a common usage, but it’s acceptable. And would he speak that way, say, in a formal situation?

Maybe not, but he should definitely be himself among his friends and his family.

Okay. I will let him know. He’ll be glad to hear that he was right.

Sure. Well, thanks for sharing your story, Luke.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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