• ort •
Pronunciation: ort • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Leftovers, the food scraps that remain after a meal is finished. 2. The crumbs, scraps, the remains left over from any job, as cleaning up the orts on a construction site.
Notes: This word is remarkable in that it is one of the few words in English actually spelled as it is pronounced. It has been in the English language since the 14th century and is making yet another comeback in the 21st. How is that for staying power? It is almost always used in the plural, orts, just as is the case with its near synonyms, leftovers and crumbs.
In Play: The original meaning of today's word apparently was "leftover animal feed" but my experience with animals leads me to believe that animals are careful not to leave food behind. In fact, they tend to help us out with our leftovers: "Ernie, would you let the dog back into the kitchen to clean up the baby's orts?" However, orts can be any kind of leftovers you can imagine: "Oh, the good committee posts go to the senior faculty; junior faculty are left the orts." (Sounds like a faculty feeling its orts, doesn't it?)
Word History: Today's Good Word is probably the reflex of an unattested Old English noun that we surmise was something like *oræt, a cognate of Early Modern Dutch ooraete, now found in a few dialects as oort or orte "remains of food or fodder". If this guess is correct, or- is an old prefix of uncertain meaning found in a few frozen forms like ordeal. It would be akin to the German prefix ur- "proto-" seen in that word every spelling bee enthusiast knows, Ursprache "proto-language". Eat comes from a root found in most Indo-European languages, such as German essen and Russian est'. (We want make sure that the main course of our gratitude today goes to Mr. Mark Angney's B-Block senior English class of Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, Massachusetts, since today's word was their idea.)
ORT
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• The Good Dr. Goodword
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Just a triviality
In German, "ort" means "a place or district", such as "New England ist ein ort..." or "Der ort is Upstate New York genant..." I know it doesn't seem to have any bearing Just another little Anglo-Saxon & Germanic word migration.
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns
Learned this word while overseeing a series of children's camps...one of the goals at mealtime was "No ort!" It's a little scary that staff could fire up a hundred 6th graders enough so that at the end of mealtime they are loudly chanting while pounding the tables "No ort! No ort!"
Since then, I've fallen into a small construction company I run on the side. I now have quite a number of the crew convinced that the "technical construction" term for scrap and trash is ORT--(Only Removable Trash)...
Wonder where they got that idea?
Since then, I've fallen into a small construction company I run on the side. I now have quite a number of the crew convinced that the "technical construction" term for scrap and trash is ORT--(Only Removable Trash)...
Wonder where they got that idea?
Well there is ort, and then there's ort, we have major ort at our house. I'm working on outting all the ort, in fact it's more like ORT! Hey, I like this, I'm going to use this word a lot, Perry good puns btw.
mark not-ort Bailey
mark not-ort Bailey
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb
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Well then, if you know what you like, it's easy. The ort is everything else. Or ort to be.I don't know much about ort, but I know what I like.
-- PW
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"
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The shiny mechanical man advances towards the woman ...
"Ort! Klatu Beratta Nikto!"
The robot's visor lifts and a red beam begins to emerge ...
"OH NO! "GORT! GORT! KLATU BERATTA NIK--!" BZZZZZZZZZZZZT! POOF!
And thus, the destruction of Humanity commenced because someone couldn't follow instructions.
"Ort! Klatu Beratta Nikto!"
The robot's visor lifts and a red beam begins to emerge ...
"OH NO! "GORT! GORT! KLATU BERATTA NIK--!" BZZZZZZZZZZZZT! POOF!
And thus, the destruction of Humanity commenced because someone couldn't follow instructions.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
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