09 August 2009

Caspar Milquetoast - "The Timid Soul"



H.T. Webster was best known for his single-panel "slice-of-life" cartoon series The Timid Soul, in which he introduced to the world the painfully shy character, Caspar Milquetoast.
The name is clearly derived from the word "milktoast", i.e., toast soaked in milk, which is usually fed to invalids. Milktoast is only slightly chewier than milksop, which is the same except the bread isn't toasted, and spineless persons have been called milksops for centuries. Years later, Webster described Mr. Milquetoast as "the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick"...

That other Mr. Webster, the one who makes dictionaries, confirms that the word "milquetoast", meaning a very shy or retiring person, is indeed derived from H.T. Webster's cartoons. The American Heritage Dictionary says it's been a lower-case noun since the mid-1930s.
Via for the panels to Hairy Green Eyeball, which has a couple dozen more.

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