Breadcrumb

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbɹɛdˌkɹʌm/

Definitions

1. Tiny fragments of dried bread used to coat food before cooking or as a filler ingredient ; small bits left to mark a path or guide someone by showing the way
2. Crumbs from bread utilized to add texture or binding in recipes ; subtle signs or hints left behind to help retrace steps or find a route
3. Dry bread particles commonly employed in cooking for coating or stuffing ; a series of clues or markers that assist in navigation or solving a puzzle

Etymology: "Breadcrumb" is about as transparent as English compounds get: bread plus crumb, with "crumb" traceable to Old English "cruma" and the sense of a small fragment. The word's most interesting turn is its second life. The fragments of dried bread used as a coating for cooking came first, and the figurative sense of a small trail left to guide someone soon followed. That figurative sense is tied to the German fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. In the story, Hansel drops a trail of bread crumbs as he and his sister go into the woods, so that they can find their way home again. The birds eat the crumbs, and the children become lost, which is what makes the trail a memorable image of guidance that can fail. In computing, a breadcrumb is a navigation trail on a web page, showing a user the path of pages they have followed to reach their current location, and so the word has come full circle to a trail of marks left to find the way back.

Synonyms: crumb, bit