Words for Leavings and Dregs

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Amy Larson. I’m calling from Ishpeming, Michigan.

Amy, what’s on your mind in terms of language?

I have a family word, and I want to know if it’s a real word or if it’s a word that we made up.

Okay.

The word is grinsleys.

Grinsleys.

What’s it mean?

Grinsleys.

Is it like a very small bear?

A small smiling bear.

Yeah, right.

What is it?

Grinsleys are what’s in the bottom of your cup.

Say you’re drinking maybe a cup of coffee, and you get to the bottom, and there’s grinsleys in it, so you don’t drink the last swallow.

Oh, gotcha.

Oh, little grinsleys.

Like the leavings or the little residue.

Yeah.

And this just sort of spontaneously generated within your family, you think?

Well, I don’t know, because my mom has always used that word.

My grandparents used that word.

I use it.

My children use it.

And people that we knew during my childhood, they knew what grinsleys were.

Is that right?

Since now that I’ve been here in Ishpeming, I’ve used it a few times and people are like, what’s a grinsley?

I’m like, grinsleys.

You know, grinsleys.

It’s a crap at the bottom of your cup.

I got to tell you, I’ve never heard it, Amy.

I don’t know it.

Grinsleys are unknown in Ishpeming.

Well, they’re unknown in my house in San Diego, too.

Yeah.

Oh, my goodness.

I was wondering if maybe we have Danish and German with a little bit of Irish for our family background.

I thought maybe it was something from there that was translated incorrectly.

I don’t think it’s German.

I don’t know about the other languages there.

So how would you spell it if you had to write it down?

Well, we have debated about this for years.

If it’s a Grinsley’s, if there’s more than one, it would be G-R-I-N-S-L-I-E-S.

Okay, just like it sounds then.

Yeah, Grinsley’s.

You know, the only thing I can think of is it reminds me of a call that we had years ago from a woman who said in her family they called the little things in your pockets, you know, after you’ve emptied your pockets.

Maybe there’s a little lint or just kind of crumbs or something.

They call those greebles, and it sounds like sort of the same thing.

Well, I can see that, although I think that we would just call those pocket grinsleys, to be honest.

Of course.

I love that.

There are lots of words for this kind of thing, but I don’t know of anything along the lines of grinsleys.

No, so if you have a little alcohol left over in a bottle, it’s a heel tap.

Do you know that one?

I don’t.

Or a leftover in a glass.

There’s a cool word out of a Yorkshire in the 1800s.

The leftovers of a feast or the leavings of a feast are called the scrunchings, which I really like.

That’s pretty cool, yeah.

Yeah, and that reminds me of an old word that I learned in college, orts.

Oh, yeah.

Do you know this, O-R-T-S?

You see it sometimes in crossword puzzles, but I learned it because I lived in a cooperative house on campus where we had 30 people, and every person was supposed to cook one meal for 30 people each month.

And so we ate really, really well because everybody wanted to show off for the whole dorm.

And the last day of the month, on the 31st, we would have orts, which is an old, old, old term for whatever is left over.

Well, you know, one I’ve seen for the leftovers in a teacup is tea grout, G-R-O-U-T.

I have actually heard of that.

You have? Okay.

But I’ve never, you know, like I said, where I grew up, you know, other people knew the word.

Maybe they knew it because they knew us.

But whatever’s in the bottom of your cup is Grinsley’s, especially like when it’s the milk and the cookies.

You never drink that last part.

You give that part to the dog.

Well, I got to say, we have many, many people listening to the show.

And there’s a good chance that if Grinsleys exist outside of your family, somebody else is going to call us or email us and tell us all about it.

All right?

Well, that’d be great.

Thank you.

And when we hear more, if we hear more, we will put it out to the world.

That would be fantastic.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

Take care now.

Thanks, Amy.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

So if you know Grinsleys, referring to the leftovers or the tiny little bits left over in a teacup or coffee cup or the…

There should be a word for that, right?

The crumbs may be in the bottom of the bread basket when the bread is all gone.

If you use Grinsley’s for that or something else, give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send in an email to words@waywordradio.org.