2007 is toast, so let’s toast the new year. Why do we use the English word toast with those two meanings and in other ways?

The earliest meaning in English appears in a cookbook around 1430 CE: “and serve forth all that as tostes.” Bread roasted over a fire to a golden-brown crispness, toast springs from a verb that was kicking around in Old French and probably in early English soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066. Old French toster ‘to roast’ stemmed from late popular Latin tostare ‘to grill, to roast, to barbecue.’ Tostare harks back to a classical Latin verb torrere ‘to burn as the sun does, to dry out by means of heat. We get the hot English adjective torrid from the same root.

How did toast come to mean the person to whom good health is wished by means of a communal drink, the act of toasting itself and the verb describing such honouring?

Writer Hyde Flippo, in an internet note on German toasts, writes this:

“The Merriam-Webster dictionary says the word is derived ‘from the use of toasted spiced bread to flavor the wine [during a toast], and the notion that the person honored also added flavor.’ Other sources claim that the word is derived from the 18th century English custom of covering a glass of hot spiced wine with a slice of toast as it was passed around the table. Each person lifted the toast, took a sip of wine, said a few words, and passed the glass on. When the glass reached the person being toasted, the honoree got to eat the toast.”

Montreal Banquet Tendered to Mr. Thomas White, Jr. Sir John A. Macdonald Replying to the Toast of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.

Artist: Julien, Henri, 1852-1908 Date: 11 December 1875. From " Canadian Illustrated News, reproduced from Library and Archives Canada's website “Images in the News: Canadian Illustrated News.”

 

2007 is toast, almost. The newest American use stems from a much older Victorian English use of the word toast. “That dude is toast” means that the person referred to is in deep trouble, is ruined, is finished or — to quote a recent movie — “the doo-doo is touching his earlobes.” He is in shit up to his shirt collar.

This use was made widely popular by its use in the film “Ghostbusters” where a character played by actor Bill Murray says, “This chick is toast.”

Several morsels of Victorian slang account for the start of this modern American meaning. A Cockney villain might have said, “ ’E was ’ad on toast, guv.” He was had on toast, that is, he was swindled good and proper. If you had someone on toast, you ate him up; you had him where you wanted him: anxious, caught and squirming. May 2008 not be like that for you!

 

A Toast to My Favorite Toasts!

Eat thy bread with joy,
and drink thy wine with a merry heart.
— Ecclesiastes 9:10

 

“Fifty more Christmases at least in this life,
and eternal summers in another.”
— Charles Dickens, Mr. Pickwick’s Christmas dinner toast

 

“May your days be long and full of happiness.
May your children be many and full of health.
And may you live in peace and freedom.”

Here's to that which goes in hard & stiff and comes out soft & wet.
Here's to bubblegum!

Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda-water the day after.
— Lord Byron

To temperance - in moderation.
— Lem Motlow, quondam sole proprietor of The Jack Daniels Distillery and, incidentally, Jack’s nephew.

Saint Patrick was a gentleman,
Who through strategy and stealth,
Drove all the snakes from Ireland,
Here’s a toasting to his health.
But not too many toastings
Lest you lose yourself and then
Forget the good Saint Patrick
And see all those snakes again.

I drink to your health when I'm with you,
I drink to your health when I'm alone,
I drink to your health so often,
I'm starting to worry about my own!

Here's to women's kisses,
and to whiskey, amber clear;
Not as sweet as a woman's kiss,
but a darn sight more sincere!

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door.

There are good ships,
and there are wood ships,
The ships that sail the sea.
But the best ships, are friendships,
And may they always be.

 

 

TOASTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

(as pronounced not necessarily as spelled)

 

Afrikaans Gesondheid

Albanian Shëndeti tuaj

Arabic Fi sahitak

Armenian Genatset

Asturian Gayola

Austrian Prost / Zum Wohl

Azerbaijani Afiyæt oslun

Basque Topa

Belgian Op uw gezonheid

Bengali Joy

Bosnian Zivjeli

Brazilian Saude

Breton Yec'hed mat

Bulgarian Nazdrave

Catalan Salut

Chinese Kong chien

Cornish Yeghes da

Creole Salud

Croatian Zivjeli / U zdravlje

Czech Na zdraví

Danish Skål

Dutch Proost

Egyptian Fee sihetak

Esperanto Sanon

Estonian Teie terviseks

Farsi Ba'sal'a'ma'ti

Finnish Kippis

French À votre santé / Santé

Frisian Tsjoch

Galician Chinchín / Saúde

German Prost

Greek Yia'sou

Greenlandic Kasugta

Hawaiian Hipahipa

Hebrew Le'chaim

Hindi Apki Lambi Umar Ke Liye Holooe Kam-poe

Hungarian Egészségedre

Icelandic Santanka nu / Skål

Ido Ye vua saneso

Irish Gaelic Sláinte (pronounced ‘slawn-che’)

Italian Salute / Cin cin

Japanese Kampai

Korean Konbe

Latin Sanitas bona / Bene tibi

Latvian Prieka

Lithuanian I sveikata

Malaysian Minum

Mandarin Gan bei

Mexican Salud

Moroccan Saha wa'afiab

Norwegian Skål

Occitan A la vòstra

Pakistani Sanda bashi

Philippine Mabuhay

Polish Na zdrowie

Portuguese Saúde

Rumanian Noroc

Russian Vashe zdorovie

Serbian Zivjeli / U zdravlje

Sesotho Nqa

Slovak Na zdravie

Slovenian Na zdravje

Spanish Salud

Swahili Afya / Vifijo

Swedish Skål

Tagalog Mabuhay

Thai Chook-die / Sawasdi

Turkish Serefe

Ukrainian Na zdorov'ya

Welsh Iechyd da

Yiddish Lechaim

Yugoslavian Ziveo / Ziveli

Zulu Oogy wawa

 

 

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