Identifying slang

September 5, 2005 9:54 AM

Identify that slang! "Gribnodes" used to refer to snackfoods, particularly snackfoods that one serves in small bowls at a party, like nuts or chexmix.

My father (who was raised in a mostly Polish household, in a mostly eastern-european-language-speaking neighborhood with some Italian speakers thrown in and spent most of his adult life as an officer in the U.S. Air Force) uses it. He can't identify where it comes from and I am, obviously, guessing at the spelling. I've had no luck in slang dictionaries or search engines or asking around. There's always the possibility that it's not an actualy slang term, per se, but just my father's word, possibly from misunderstanding a Polish word or phrase. Suggestions?

posted by crush-onastick to society & culture (8 comments total)

When I was bartending we called it "bar chum".
posted by Miko at 10:31 AM on September 5, 2005

I've heard of kibbles, vittles and grub, scrapple, gristle and granola...

...but not "gribnodes". Could be immigrant slang, an unintended malapropism, or overseas foodstuff.
posted by Smart Dalek at 11:16 AM on September 5, 2005

It's probably from a derivative of Polish grzyb 'mushroom'; I don't have a good Polish dictionary, but the Russian equivalent is grib, which has the derivative gribnitsa 'mushroom spawn, mushroom soup.' Slavic snack spreads, of course, prominently feature mushrooms.
posted by languagehat at 11:52 AM on September 5, 2005

Self-link: gribnes.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:02 PM on September 5, 2005

Usually spelled "gribenes" from גריבענעס, I see. Literal meaning "scraps" according to the dictionary, but I only know it in the chicken-skin context.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:15 PM on September 5, 2005

Yeah, that's Yiddish. Yum!
posted by luriete at 10:32 PM on September 5, 2005

I dunno. To me, "raised in a mostly Polish household" implies Polish gentile, not Polish Jew, and Occam's razor suggests the guy is using a Polish word rather than borrowing a Yiddish one (which is a Slavic loanword anyway).
posted by languagehat at 8:36 AM on September 6, 2005

catholics, the whole neighborhood.

mom believes the phrase came from the military years, not the polish neighborhood. dad has expressed no opinion.

the grib root certainly seems likely.
posted by crush-onastick at 5:53 PM on September 7, 2005