“We picked up one excellent word – a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word – ‘Lagniappe.’ They pronounce it lanny-yap. […] When a child or a servant buys something in a shop – or even the mayor or governor, for aught I know – he finishes the operation by saying, – ‘Give me something for lagniappe.’ The shopman always responds; gives the child a bit of liquorice-root; […]”: Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883)
I recently sent an incidental small gift to a friend in New Orleans. He replied with thanks for the "lagniappe," so of course I had to look that up. Here are the essentials, courtesy of Wiktionary:
Definition: (chiefly Louisiana, Mississippi, Trinidad and Tobago) An extra or unexpected gift or benefit, such as that given to customers when they purchase something.Synonyms: (chiefly Southern US) brotus, (South Africa) pasella, (Ireland) tillyEtymology: From Cajun French lagniappe, from Spanish la ñapa, a variant of yapa (“small gift or additional quantity given to a valued customer”), from Quechua yapa (“addition, increase, supplement; lagniappe”), yapay (“to add, to increase”).
I thought that might be my first English word of Quechua origin, but a quick check reveals there are many more, including ayahuasca, cocaine, guano, jerk/jerky, pampas, pique, poncho, puma, quinine, quinoa, vicuna, and the place names Andes, Chile, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and Peru.
While my family (originally from Tennessee--the Mother State of Texas) never used the word, I learned it probably on some vocabulary study in school. I took it to mean "a little something extra to show we appreciate the business," etc. But to ASK for it strikes me as a bit contrary to the spirit of things.
ReplyDeleteI had to look up your phrase, and AI gave me this -
Delete"Tennessee has a strong connection to the Alamo, as at least 30 men who died there were from Tennessee, including the famous frontiersman David Crockett. This large contingent from one state is a significant reason why some consider Tennessee the "Mother State of Texas," due to its role in the Texas Revolution" (also Sam Houston was from Tennessee).