Dust traps
January 24, 2008 4:20 AM   Subscribe

Is there a SINGLE word in English preferably or in any other language for drinks or foodstuff that lay forgotten in the back of the cupboard / pantry not being used and just gathering dust?
posted by Parsnip to Writing & Language (26 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
supplies
posted by JohnnyGunn at 4:25 AM on January 24, 2008


We say that such things have become 'pantrified'. A quick Google search shows that it's a perfectly cromulent word.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:27 AM on January 24, 2008 [1 favorite]


Abandonwares
posted by jontyjago at 4:47 AM on January 24, 2008


Right-overs.

As in, "I keep looking right over those boxes of Jello."
posted by Hugh2d2 at 4:59 AM on January 24, 2008 [1 favorite]


mathoms
posted by zemblamatic at 5:37 AM on January 24, 2008 [1 favorite]


pre-garbage
posted by briank at 5:43 AM on January 24, 2008


Is this like sniglets where you want people to make things up?

This isn't German. There isn't a word for everything.
posted by smackfu at 5:49 AM on January 24, 2008 [1 favorite]


foodetritus
posted by dorian at 5:56 AM on January 24, 2008


This isn't German. There isn't a word for everything.

Agreed.
posted by ottereroticist at 6:01 AM on January 24, 2008


non-perishables.
posted by buka at 6:12 AM on January 24, 2008


Do you mean specifically for that, or a word that could refer to those items?

Detritus sounds appropriate.
posted by Magnakai at 6:21 AM on January 24, 2008


neveredibles.
posted by Dizzy at 6:40 AM on January 24, 2008


Oddment
posted by cowbellemoo at 7:02 AM on January 24, 2008


mathoms

Nah. Those are gifts you've received that you don't want and give out to someone else at a later time -- per Tolkien. No hobbit would ever refer to food as a mathom!
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 7:12 AM on January 24, 2008 [2 favorites]


Cruft?
posted by aramaic at 7:12 AM on January 24, 2008


i was also going to suggest cruft
posted by lohmannn at 7:19 AM on January 24, 2008


Ort?
posted by scruss at 7:42 AM on January 24, 2008


MW online hs nothing for cruft, the OED has the dog show guy and cruft as poor quality software.

OED has ort as refering to the scraps of meals, so not really what the question was asking.
posted by biffa at 8:10 AM on January 24, 2008


There are American dialects where putting [something] up means preserving it for long-term storage — as opposed to eating it right away, or cooking and keeping it for a short while. If you're making pickles this week for a picnic next week, you're not putting them up. Putting them up would be canning them so you can eat them next year.

I've noticed, though, that a lot of people who still use the phrase have extended it to cover short-term storage too. You'll hear people talk about putting leftovers up, and what they mean is putting them in the fridge for tomorrow. So that extension may have made the phrase less useful to you.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:17 AM on January 24, 2008 [1 favorite]


I suspect non-perishables is probably the best answer you're going to get, but in the flavor of Philip K. Dick I'd like to suggest kipple as a possible single descriptive word for the stuff, but only if it is aggressively gathering dust.
posted by CheshireCat at 8:43 AM on January 24, 2008


I've heard 'orts' used as a meal made from scraps or leftovers or old food in the back of the cupboard or the leftovers / old food themselves in a couple of places...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:09 AM on January 24, 2008


Response by poster: Thanks everyone! Just a clarification: I am not looking for you to invent a word for me. I am just wondering if there is - in any language - a word signifying what I am looking for. Somewhat similar to "The meaning of Tingo":

http://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Tingo-Other-Extraordinary-Around/dp/B000GUJHBC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201201451&sr=8-1
posted by Parsnip at 11:06 AM on January 24, 2008


Kipple?
posted by Afroblanco at 11:25 AM on January 24, 2008


I should perhaps have clarified that my use of "cruft" hinged on repurposing the word.

It was based on the idea that it often relates to outdated code that is no longer well-suited to the programming task at hand, so it could potentially relate to obscure pantry items that are no longer well-suited to the cooking task at hand.
posted by aramaic at 11:36 AM on January 24, 2008


aramaic - if anything the use of cruft in this context is returning to what I understand is the original sense behind the word. I always understood cruft to be the accumulation of bits of code - subroutines and the like - that may once have had a purpose but whose purpose is now obsolete or at the very least obscure. I think crufty is an excellent description of the back of my cupboard at least.
posted by tim_in_oz at 12:21 PM on January 24, 2008


the island of misfit foodstuffs.
posted by malaprohibita at 10:51 AM on January 25, 2008


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