# Getting the knack of noshing
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 15, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395 "2007-02-15T20:06:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/1 "2007-02-15T20:06:13Z")
My sidekick just found out that “nosh” is a completely different word than “gnash.”
The bad news is, he found this out when I dissolved into helpless laughter when he used “gnash” rather than “nosh” in a piece of writing he submitted to me.
The good news is, he will never make that particular mistake again. Ever. 😃
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### Author:  [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/2 "2007-02-15T20:18:38Z")
Well, you know, particularly enthusiastic gastronomites[sup]\*[/sup] have been known to gnash when they nosh, so in his defense he wasn’t _too_ far off the mark.
[sub]\* I know this is not a word. It should be, though. It has such a lovely ring to it.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/3 "2007-02-15T20:20:23Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield]
[sub]\* I know this is not a word. It should be, though. It has such a lovely ring to it.[/sub]
[/QUOTE]
As my husband always says, “If it came from a people’s mouth…it’s a word.”
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### Author:  [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2007, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/4 "2007-02-15T20:26:34Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
As my husband always says, “If it came from a people’s mouth…it’s a word.”
[/QUOTE]
Your husband is obviously one hoopy frood.
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/5 "2007-02-15T20:29:17Z")
You have a sidekick? I want a sidekick. Where do you get them?
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/6 "2007-02-15T20:51:51Z")
[QUOTE=cher3]
You have a sidekick? I want a sidekick. Where do you get them?
[/QUOTE]
Hands off! He’s mine!
Now if I could just get him to don tights and an eye mask, I’d be set…
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### Author:  [@Lisa\_Ann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa_Ann)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2007, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/7 "2007-02-15T20:55:35Z")
My husband cracked me up last night when he said he’d ‘given up the goat.’ He says his dad always used that phrase.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/8 "2007-02-16T13:48:56Z")
[QUOTE=Lisa Ann]
My husband cracked me up last night when he said he’d ‘given up the goat.’ He says his dad always used that phrase.
[/QUOTE]
Pretty funny.
Of course, “give up the ghost” also makes zero sense if you think about it too hard.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/9 "2007-02-16T15:03:49Z")
If it matters, I have a buddy whose grasp of language appears to have arrived through his ears. Either that or whenever he reads a strange new word he just does the Fonix trick and lets it go at that. Anyway, it’s hard to hold back giggling at some of his “fox pauses” as in:
Cultured = kosher
Sub-tul (guess)
My-zulled (guess)
Graff-ler = grappling hook
He also had the habit of reducing any verb he couldn’t think of at the moment to “thing.” He’d be in the middle of explaining how to do something and he would say something like, “so when you get to this part you just take and thing this part over there…”
He’s not the only one to “take and (verb)” things. It’s not uncommon to take and ride over to Mama’s house or to take and wash your clothes or to take and watch a football game on TV.
Guess I’ll take and quit this post.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/10 "2007-02-16T15:04:59Z")
[QUOTE=twickster]
Pretty funny.
Of course, “give up the ghost” also makes zero sense if you think about it too hard.
[/QUOTE]
Y’all remember the Oprah joke about having sex with a ghost, right?
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/11 "2007-02-16T15:07:57Z")
In certain quarters in England to “nosh” is to “administer oral pleasure to”. Which makes the title of this thread particularly amusing to me.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/12 "2007-02-16T15:10:09Z")
[QUOTE=Lisa Ann]
My husband cracked me up last night when he said he’d ‘given up the goat.’ He says his dad always used that phrase.
[/QUOTE]
So he’s no longer a Mason?
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/13 "2007-02-16T15:13:19Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Y’all remember the Oprah joke about having sex with a ghost, right?
[/QUOTE]
Nope.
And **don’t ask** – I figured if **Lisa Ann** ’s hubby had given up the goat, it meant he wasn’t going to participate in any initiation ceremonies during Lent.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/14 "2007-02-16T15:32:51Z")
[QUOTE=twickster]
Nope.
QUOTE]
Okay. I’ll make it quick, Oprah is involving her audience in the topic of the day which seems to be Psychic Phenomena and Seeing Through To The Other Side. Before her guest comes out she asks for everybody who ever saw a ghost to stand. Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of them stand. Then she asks anyone who ever touched a ghost to remain standing. All but maybe 10 sit down. Then she asks if any of them ever had sex with a ghost. One old guy in the back raises his hand and Oprah invites him to the stage. She asks him," What was it like to have sex with a ghost?" The old guy looks at her with a puzzled look and says, “Ghost? I thought you said “goat.””
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/15 "2007-02-16T15:34:08Z")
I was recently told that the requirements are nailed in stone…
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/16 "2007-02-16T15:45:13Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
“Ghost? I thought you said “goat.””
[/QUOTE]
Hee!
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/17 "2007-02-16T15:50:20Z")
I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered the word “nosh” outside crossword puzzles, but it shows up there all the time. So I figure it must be one of those words made up by crossword puzzle constructors. (Not that **twickster** would know anything about that.) 🙂
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### Author:  [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/18 "2007-02-16T15:55:16Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm]
In certain quarters in England to “nosh” is to “administer oral pleasure to”. Which makes the title of this thread particularly amusing to me.
[/QUOTE]
Which part of England? Nosh is to eat…oh right, sorry 😃😉
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/19 "2007-02-16T16:40:48Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Cultured = kosher
Sub-tul (guess)
My-zulled (guess)
Graff-ler = grappling hook
[/QUOTE]
As a friend of mine would say, those aren’t words, they are sway-doh words.
Dude, it ain’t pronounced sway-doh. And drownd is not a word either.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-the-knack-of-noshing/392395/20 "2007-02-16T16:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink]
So I figure it must be one of those words made up by crossword puzzle constructors. (Not that **twickster** would know anything about that.) 🙂
[/QUOTE]
Of course not. 😉
Seriously, though – it’s from the Yiddish – which is why I find the British usage so … unexpected.
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