Skip to content
word of the day

The word for today is…

milquetoast (adjective):

1 : of a person : timid, meek, or unassertive
2 : lacking in character or vigor

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : Caspar Milquetoast was a comic strip character created in 1924 by the American cartoonist Harold T. Webster. The strip, called “The Timid Soul,” ran every Sunday in the New York Herald Tribune for many years. Webster, who claimed that Milquetoast was a self-portrait, summed up the character as “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick.” The earliest examples for Milquetoast used as a generic synonym for “timid person” date from the mid-1930s. Caspar’s last name might remind you of “milk toast,” a bland concoction of buttered toast served in a dish of warm milk.

If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.

Latest

Acres of Skin

Acres of Skin

A young doctor looked at a prison full of men and saw a field to harvest. The cream in your medicine cabinet came out of a prison experiment.

Members Public
How I Fell Out With Julie Burchill

How I Fell Out With Julie Burchill

The Modern Review is coming to Substack with an online archive plus new original content. Read about how the famed ‘low culture’ magazine came crashing down when Julie Burchill plotted a coup with her new lesbian lover.

Members Public