Ort

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small leftover scrap of food after a meal ; a bit of something remaining and usually discarded ; a remnant or morsel left uneaten
2. A tiny piece of uneaten food ; a fragment or small remnant that is typically thrown away ; an insignificant leftover portion
3. An insignificant bit of food left on a plate ; a residue or remains generally considered waste ; a minor morsel remaining from what was once whole

Etymology: The word "ort" has a surprising double life. Its oldest sense is the scraps left on a plate, and it comes from Old English "or-", meaning "outside" or "without," joined to "eat." Literally, then, an ort is the food eaten "without" in the sense of what is left over. Related forms turn up across the Germanic languages: Middle Low German "orte" meant refuse of food, and Middle High German "urez" and modern German "Uräß" carry the same sense of leftovers. The same spelling also names a small coin. German "Ort" meant a quarter of a thaler, and Polish "ort" meant a coin, and the English word was probably borrowed from these central European languages. Two unrelated-looking words, one for crumbs and one for money, have converged in English under one spelling, and the coin sense is the one most dictionaries now treat as separate.

Synonyms: scrap, remnant, leftover, residue

Antonyms: whole, entirety