Join FunTrivia for Free: Hourly trivia games, quizzes, community, and more!
Fun Trivia
Ask FunTrivia: Questions and Answers
Answers to 100,000 Fascinating Questions
Welcome to FunTrivia's Question & Answer forum!

Search All Questions


Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims.

Archived Questions

Goto Qn #


Someone that is called a milktoast is considered to be what?

Question #131572. Asked by endoverend.
Last updated Jun 22 2013.
Originally posted Jun 21 2013 10:48 PM.

avatar
donkeehote star
Answer has 1 vote
donkeehote star avatar

Answer has 1 vote.

Milktoast or Milquetoast is an American English dysphemism for a weak, timid, or bland person.
The word milquetoast derives from the name of Caspar Milquetoast, a diffident character in H. T. Webster's comic strip The Timid Soul.[1] The comic strip first ran in 1924 in the New York World; it was later published in the Herald Tribune.[2]

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milquetoast

Jun 21 2013, 11:02 PM
avatar
sportsherald star
Answer has 4 votes
Currently Best Answer
sportsherald star
13 year member
710 replies avatar

Answer has 4 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
More accurately, they would be called a Milquetoast, from:
"milque·toast (mlktst) n. One who has a meek, timid, unassertive nature.

[After Caspar Milquetoast, a comic-strip character created by Harold Tucker Webster (1885-1952).]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

milquetoasty adj.
Word History: An indication of the effect on the English language of popular culture is the adoption of names from the comic strips as English words. Casper Milquetoast, created by Harold Webster in 1924, was a timid and retiring man named for a timid food. The first instance of milquetoast as a common noun is found in the mid-1930s. Milquetoast thus joins the ranks of other such words, including sad sack, from a blundering army private invented by George Baker in 1942, and Wimpy, from J. Wellington Wimpy in the Popeye comic strip, which became a trade name for a hamburger. If we look to a related form of popular culture, the animated cartoon, we must of course acknowledge Mickey Mouse, which has become a slang term for something that is easy, insignificant, small-time, worthless, or petty." -from link http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Milquetoast

See also: "Milquetoast, Casper the timid soul; easily controlled by others. [Comics: The Timid Soul"
-see link http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Milquetoast%2c+Casper
and link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Milquetoast

Jun 21 2013, 11:10 PM
davejacobs
Answer has 1 vote
davejacobs
22 year member
956 replies

Answer has 1 vote.
The so-called comfort food is usually spelled "milk toast", as this reference says, not to be confused with milquetoast, the timid person.
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_toast
Actually it sounds much like bread and butter pudding, which is delicious.

Jun 22 2013, 1:39 AM
free email trivia FREE! Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email. It's a fun way to start your day!


arrow Your Email Address:

Sign in or Create Free User ID to participate in the discussion