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After a week devoted to savory, good-tasting words, are you hungry? Good! Let’s devote a week to words about over-eating. For instance, you could startle your teenager by saying to him, "Don't guttle your food!" guttle – to eat greedily and voraciously (noun guttler – one who guttles; a glutton) [from gut? from guzzle? Many of the word’s appearances are in the phrase guttling and guzzling.] Recent quotes are available, but the older ones are so much more interesting.
– Ambrose Bierce, A Sole Survivor Are you, who are setting up to be a man of the world and a philosopher, to tell me that the aim of life is to guttle three courses and dine off silver? Do you dare to own to yourself that your ambition in life is a good claret, and that you'll dine with any, provided you get a stalled ox to feed on? … I'd rather live upon raw turnips and sleep in a hollow tree, or turn backwoodsman or savage, than degrade myself to this civilisation, and own that a French cook was the thing in life best worth living for. – William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis | ||
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fress – to eat a great deal (also, to eat quickly noisily). noun form: fresser Definition taken from Leo Rosten (The New Joys of Yiddish), who reports that one of his correspondents tells of seeing a restaurant in Mexico City whose menu, under “Sandwiches,” read thus:
Pastrami (Double Decker) por Grandes Fressers …………20 pesos Pastrami (Triple Decker) por Grandísimo Fressers……… 30 pesos | |||
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German has two verbs meaning "to eat" - essen and fressen. Essen is used for people and fressen is used for animals. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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I ran across this word in the book Plain and Fancy by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman: "What they don't fress up, we'll give to the pigs." Tinman | |||
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I've always loved fress. In German, as in Yiddish, there is a difference between essen and fressen. They are both translated as 'to eat', but the former is usually what humans do, while the latter is what animals do. Also, German Fotter, cognate with English fodder, is the food that an animal fresses. In Ligurian Italian, which my grandmother spoke with my father and uncles, there is a great verb sccieûppâ /ʃtʃø'pa/, 'to explode (from overeating)' which glosses Yiddish plotsn quite well. —Ceci n'est pas un seing. | |||
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We put two words together today because the overeating quotes concern U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (served 1901-1909) and his vice president and successor, William Howard Taft. The former was a powerfully-built man of good appetite, but the latter, who weighed well over 300 pounds, dwarfed him. One word uses the -cious ending, which Thoreau says is particularly strong.
– Thoreau’s journal, Sept. 2, 1851 (some print versions say “voracius”) edacious – devouring food in great quantities; voracious
– Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex For Americans of even moderate means eating was no casual activity in the early 1900s. The day's meals … were serious, often interminable progressions through course after substantial course, and the American appetite of [food critic James] Beard's formative years was personified by the spectacularly edacious William Howard Taft, who crowded his mountainous bulk into the White House when Beard was five years old … – Jay Jacobs, James Beard, an American Icon: the Early Years, in Endless Feasts: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet suppurate – to form or discharge pus | |||
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Always assumed "trencherman" meant "hungry like one who dug ditches all day." Turns out it is only distantly related to that hole in the ground (from Word for the Day): " Trencherman is from trencher, 'a wooden board or platter on which food is served or carved' (from Medieval French trencheoir, from Old French trenchier, 'to cut,' from Latin truncare, 'to lop off, to shorten by cutting') + man. It is related to trench, 'a hole cut into the ground.' " So, the trencherman snuggles close to the dining board. Similar in concept to "parasite" or one who is near ("para") the wheat ("sito"). RJA | |||
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I have seen many patients with suppurating wounds. However, I've surely not seen it used as in that quote. Not very appetizing! The online OED only seemed to cite the pus-forming definition.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh, | |||
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hork – slang: to gulp down hurriedly; to "snarf" [origin: onomatopoeic?] This term is relatively new. Though I’ve seen it more often defined as "to vomit", the meaning I give seems to be more in the mainstream culture, as indicated by the today’s quote. I’ll present that quote in a different format, as brief video clip from a current movie.  (Those who lack audio can get the quote by painting over the text below, which I’ve typed in very-light color. But if you can play the clip, do so; you’ll find that much more entertaining.)
Remy : AH! NO NO NO NO! SPIT THAT OUT RIGHT NOW! [Emile obeys.] Remy: I have got to teach you about food. Close your eyes. [Emile obeys. Remy hands out piece of cheese.] Remy: Now take a bite of this … [Emile snarfs cheese.] Remy: No no no! Don't just hork it down! Emile: Too late. | |||
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CONFUCIUS SAY: Man who hork DOWN food too fast, may have to hork it UP later. Also man who eat at restaurant have to hork up money to pay for meal, or do horking dishes! Pierre | |||
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Welcome, Pierre! We hope to see more of you here. | |||
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I can't say I've ever heard of hork before. I wouldn't mind never hearing it again. This site , A Historical Dictionary of American Slang, says hork, "To vomit," originated in the 1980s, and hork, to "Gulp, gobble, swallow whole," originated in the 2000s. The Urban Dictionary gives several definitions of the word. Apparently you can vote on the various definitions, as evidenced by the "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" symbols. Check out the other "hork" words, such as hork wad, hork-idge and horkachork. Strangely enough, it's not found in the OED. Tinman | |||
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We've talked about it before though. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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gourmandize – to overeat or eat immodestly; make a pig of oneself
– Robert Ruark, The Old Man's Boy Grows Older | |||
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I guess I was sleeping that day. Tinman | |||
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Today's word, an obscure one akin to "rape", has its root in the concept of plunder, pillage, and taking prey. But I'll give only the definitions that pertain to our theme of overeating. raven; ravin – verb: to devour voraciously (as in "preying upon"), or to have such an appetite: Beasts … ravening for blood and slaughter (noun: voracity; gluttony)
– Thomas Howard and Vivian W. Dudro, The Night Is Far Spent Plus a nice older quote (credit to OED): The great abundance of meate deuoured by Rauen-stomackes and Trencher-friends. – Crooke, Body of Man (1615) [Note: The quote, per the style of the times, twice uses a u where we would use a v.] trencher – a wooden board or platter, for carving or serving food (We saw this a few days ago, when we presented 'trencherman'.)This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter, | |||
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