Family word? Dialect? Regionalism? Nonsense?
March 7, 2014 9:04 AM Subscribe
If anyone besides my spouse and her family knows the word "toast-a-dies," would you please step forward? I'm trying to find out the origin of this term for French toast.
My spouse's word for French toast, which she got from her father, is "toast-a-dies." She doesn't know where this word comes from. We don't even know if it's a real word or if it's something that her father made up (and her father is notoriously cagey about this).
If anyone else has EVER heard of this word, do you know the origin? I'm not even sure of the spelling--I made a close stab at it. ("Dies" is pronounced "dees.") The closest I can figure, if it's an actual word, that it might be some kind of corruption of "toast a dix"--aka, ten-day-old toast, much as the French would refer to it as "pain perdu" or "lost bread." Is that plausible?
Spouse's father was born and raised in New Haven, CT; he's in his early 70s. He's a combination of French Canadian (he's anglophone but I don't know how far back in his family that goes) and Italian. I haven't thought much about the potential of the term being Italian, but maybe it is--I think I lean toward the French because well, French toast. There's nothing special about his recipe that might indicate the need for a particular term--basic eggs, milk, vanilla and bread.
My spouse's word for French toast, which she got from her father, is "toast-a-dies." She doesn't know where this word comes from. We don't even know if it's a real word or if it's something that her father made up (and her father is notoriously cagey about this).
If anyone else has EVER heard of this word, do you know the origin? I'm not even sure of the spelling--I made a close stab at it. ("Dies" is pronounced "dees.") The closest I can figure, if it's an actual word, that it might be some kind of corruption of "toast a dix"--aka, ten-day-old toast, much as the French would refer to it as "pain perdu" or "lost bread." Is that plausible?
Spouse's father was born and raised in New Haven, CT; he's in his early 70s. He's a combination of French Canadian (he's anglophone but I don't know how far back in his family that goes) and Italian. I haven't thought much about the potential of the term being Italian, but maybe it is--I think I lean toward the French because well, French toast. There's nothing special about his recipe that might indicate the need for a particular term--basic eggs, milk, vanilla and bread.
Could he be saying (or mispronouncing) "tostati", Italian for (plural) toasted/roasted?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:07 AM on March 7, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:07 AM on March 7, 2014 [2 favorites]
Could it be that your spouse said it one day as a young child and her father thought it was so cute that all French toast was henceforth known as toastadies?
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 11:27 AM on March 7, 2014
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 11:27 AM on March 7, 2014
Response by poster: 10th Regiment, I like that idea. That comes closer than anything else we've considered.
Just this guy, I'm thinking probably not--there's no Latino in that family mix and I don't think they would have been associating with many Latino folks, either (although it's possible--there's a pretty big Puerto Rican population in New Haven, I think, although not as big as Hartford's).
posted by dlugoczaj at 12:39 PM on March 7, 2014
Just this guy, I'm thinking probably not--there's no Latino in that family mix and I don't think they would have been associating with many Latino folks, either (although it's possible--there's a pretty big Puerto Rican population in New Haven, I think, although not as big as Hartford's).
posted by dlugoczaj at 12:39 PM on March 7, 2014
We don't even know if it's a real word or if it's something that her father made up (and her father is notoriously cagey about this).
If it was a real word or phrase there would be absolutely no reason for him to be cagey. Think about it.
posted by mmoncur at 6:46 PM on March 8, 2014
If it was a real word or phrase there would be absolutely no reason for him to be cagey. Think about it.
posted by mmoncur at 6:46 PM on March 8, 2014
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posted by Just this guy, y'know at 9:11 AM on March 7, 2014