Milquetoast . . .

Like a lot of people, when I come across a word that I don't know, I want to know what it means. Being a lifelong educator, I always turned to the dictionary for my definitions. And I still do, although I will admit to having turned more and more to the technology of the Internet that effortlessly brings me things like Dictionary.com. I mean, how easy is that. I happen to be in a phase where I'm not reading any books, so I do most of my reading these days on the computer, and the computer seems like a pretty logical place to get a quick definition. But that doesn't mean that I still don't sometimes walk across the room, get the same red Webster's New World Dictionary Third College Edition Updated 1994 Edition and look up a word with the dictionary opened up on the floor or on the edge of my bed.

Regardless of where I get my definitions, it's always so cool to me to learn a new word. And invariably, as soon as I learn it, I seem to encounter it in the next week or so. I always joke that I will hear the word three times right after I learn it, but that doesn't seem to happen as often as I think it will. But in the interest of entertaining, informing, and educating my vast and loyal readership, I will share with you that my newest word is milquetoast. It's pronounced "milk toast," rather that "milky toast" which is how I pronounced it in my head the first time I came across it. I don't remember the online article it came from, but I did look in up and found that a milquetoast is a meek, timid man. Just like toast soaked in milk would be pretty soppy. And the word has a crazy history of having its origin be an unassertive comic strip character named Caspar Milquetoast who was first introduced in 1924 in "The Timid Soul" by American cartoonist H. T. Webster. And I learned all of this from Dictionary.com. So cool.

Now, I know that the Kindle and similar book-machines have a dictionary built right in that you can use to look up any word in any book that you read. And I can recognize that that, too, is very cool. However, to this point in my life, I have decided to stick with actual books over the electronic versions out there. I don't know how long I will maintain that position, but for now, it's how I roll.

Shortly after I learned my new word, I heard Hannah Storm use it on ESPN. That's been the only time I've heard it. It's such an obscure word, that I don't really expect to encounter it two more times. But now that you know it, maybe you will.