Lagniappe It's a Creole or Cajun word meaning a gratuity. Has anyone ever heard it used to mean a bonus, as in, "We've got sustinence and covering; everything else is lagniappe?"

[This message was edited by Asa Lovejoy on Sun Apr 13th, 2003 at 13:11.]

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:
_Lagniappe_ It's a Creole or Cajun word meaning a gratuity. Has anyone ever heard it used to mean a bonus, as in, "We've got sustinence and covering; evenything else is lagniappe?"

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I've heard this word before, but only once and that's where I'm stuck.
It was in a science fiction book based in a military situation on board a space ship. The word was used between the characters on board to mean "doing something as a favour". As I recall the first use of the word was accompanied by a character mishearing it as Lan of Yap and believing this to be someone's name.
The trouble is I can't remember what book. My first thought was that it might be Starship Troopers but I don't think that's right. Now I'm thinking maybe it was in one of Piers Anthony's Vicinity Cluster series but that could also be wrong.

Any ideas anyone ?

Vescere bracis meis.

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

[This message was edited by BobHale on Sun Apr 13th, 2003 at 14:52.]

Interesting. Around here it is quite a familiar word. Each year our local high school puts on a play, which is written and and carried out by the students. The project is called, "Lagniappe".

I just read your link, Kalleh, about the 63rd Lagniappe. Is this an annual show? If it is, then it must have begun in 1939. How did they decide to name their show "lagniappe"? Was this their gift to the people? (I'm not being facetious.)

The Word Detective and World Wide Words both comment on "lagniappe".

Tinman

Nice work, Tinman! Those two sites do indicate that my questioned usage is correct. And, of course, your providing not one, but two references was, indeed, lagniappe!

[This message was edited by Asa Lovejoy on Sun Apr 13th, 2003 at 13:09.]

Tinman, you have piqued my interest. I believe that the intention with this performance is that it is the students' gift back to the school--since they do everything, from writing it, performing it, and financially supporting it. However, now I am going to see if I can verify that by checking with the school. New Trier just had it's 100th anniversary, so it has been around for quite awhile, and this has been a delightful tradition. My daughter was once the "business" chair of the event.

Interestingly, in the World Wide Words' link, they said that it is pronounced, "lanny-yap". Around here it is pronounced "lahn-yahp".

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Interestingly, in the World Wide Words' link, they said that it is pronounced, "lanny-yap". Around here it is pronounced "lahn-yahp".

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I noticed that, too. Remember, that was Twain's pronunciation in 1883 of a word he had just learned. Most of the sources I looked at pronounce it "lan yap" ("a" as in "cat"). The OED give the pronunciation "lænjæp", which doesn't help me a bit. OneLook lists 14 sources for "lagniappe".

Tinman

Most of the sources I looked at pronounce it "lan yap" ("a" as in
"cat").
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That's how I've always heard it, but, then, I haven't heard it in many years. Not too many French Creoles in Oregon, despite all the French names here.

I realized that I didn't use a rounded "n" (or whatever it's called) when I posted the pronunciation. Around here it is pronounced like Tinman wrote: "lahn-yahp"--but definitely not like Asa wrote, with the "cat" sound for "yap".

I did ask one of the English teachers at New Trier about the use of the term "lagnippe" for their performance. She was surprisingly vague, yet seemed to confirm that it meant a "gift" to the school from the students.

Another friend said that she remembered the word from Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi".

A Google Search for lagniappe yields more than 38,000 entries

Is a "baker's dozen" a lagniappe, so to speak? And, from where does that term come, anyway?

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Is a "baker's dozen" a lagniappe, so to speak? And, from where does that term come, anyway?

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Well here's one story.

Non curo ! Si metrum no habet, non est poema.

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Is a "baker's dozen" a lagniappe, so to speak? And, from where does that term come, anyway?

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Good question. This story seems a little less fanciful: "In times when bakers incurred a heavy fine for giving short weight they used to add an extra loaf to avoid the risk."

That's from an on-line source that at first glance seems excellent. If it survives secord glance, I'll post it in the Links section.

Here's another explanation from Etymologies & Word Origins.
Tinman

That is, of course, a great site, Tinman, but I can't help but notice in their explanation that they say "So, baker's would include a thirteenth loaf..."

"Baker's"??!! Let's be generous and assume it was just a typo.

Yes, C J, I noticed that. I wondered who'd be the first to catch it. You win.

Tinman

Asa posted:
Lagniappe: It's a Creole or Cajun word meaning a gratuity. Has anyone ever heard it used to mean a bonus, as in, "We've got sustinence and covering; everything else is lagniappe?"

Distinguishingd lagniape from tip:

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Responding to a question from a coat checker about who is the rightful recipient of a tip, she or her boss, I wrote, "A patron leaving a couple bucks would assume he had offered his lagniappe to the coat-check attendant, not the management."

A nice thought, but poorly expressed. A tip comes from a customer; a lagniappe goes to a customer. It is that 13th doughnut thrown in when you buy a dozen, a little something extra.
- Syndicated columnist Randy Cohen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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The following is the last entry in "The Linebook" that a really sweet friend sent me:

Lagniappe
Go, little Linebook, on your way, to those who are sad and those who are gay; we hope you've a message for every one, you sixty-four page son of a gun.

One can tell it was written in 1929, or thereabouts; when have you last heard "son of a gun"? Or "gay" to mean "happy"?

The sadness of it is that the word "gay" is not a simile for "happy". The concept conveyed by the word gay is far more complex than that of simple happiness.

I refuse to use the word when describing homosexuals since I truly resent its highjacking by that community.

In fact, out of sheer devilment, I frequently use the word "gay" in its traditional (and proper) sense.

Richard English

Richard, I concur. I am another frequently gay heterosexual man. To use the word otherwise gainsays hundreds of years of English usage, and perverts much of literature. To wit, Dylan Thomas's usage in this poem:

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT


Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Let us rage against denying of the right to use "gay" properly!

[This message was edited by Asa Lovejoy on Fri Jul 11th, 2003 at 7:07.]

Well, let me say that you two are in the minority!

Yes, Richard, I realize that happy does not accurately define "gay", and in fact no word really does, does it? So, maybe we do need "gay" back. After all, homosexual does just fine for the other meaning, though when shortened to "homo", it becomes a bit of an insult!

In looking up "gay" on dictionary.com, I find that the first definition now is for a homosexual person. As posted in another thread, I only see it used to describe men. However, the AHD usage note says that it can be used for women, too. The synonyms for the other definition that seem the closest the meaning of "gay" are "merry", "gleeful", "sprightly", "frolicsome".

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A nice thought, but poorly expressed. A tip comes from a customer; a lagniappe goes to a customer. It is that 13th doughnut thrown in when you buy a dozen, a little something extra.

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Wordnerd, does that mean that "pourboire" is not a synonym for "lagniappe?" A friend of mine said that in Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" lagniappe is used as a synonym for pourboire.

Here's another word for tip: douceur, meaning a gift or service done or to be done, though it can also mean a gentleness & sweetness in manner. Now, in this day and age, that's a good word!

I wonder why the French have so many words for tip?