ProbableNamed from the place
Missouri toothpick
noun · first attested 19th century
Frontier humor gave the largest knife in America the daintiest name it could find.
Obsolete American slang for a bowie knife.
38.5000°N -92.5000°W · Q1581
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- ProbableThe conventional story is likely, with caveats.
- Attested
- 19th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Missouri
- In English
Missouri toothpick
The bowie knife collected mock genteel nicknames across the frontier, of which Arkansas toothpick is the one that survived; Missouri toothpick and California toothpick are the same joke with a different state. European travel writers helped it along with stories of men picking their teeth with foot long blades. Green's Dictionary of Slang files the Missouri version under the Arkansas entry.
Also pinned to Missouri
1 more from the same place
United States
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