so I know the "correct" spelling of milktoast is milquetoast so I decided to look up the etymology and apparently it's from the name of a fictional character who's named after milk toast but spelled with a que to make it look french. so I guess go ahead and spell it milktoast
Not only is it the correct spelling, milktoast is a non-word while milquetoast (even auto-correct knows this) is a real word with a real definition! You're not calling anyone actual, literal milk toast:
. . .a Depression-era "struggle food" recipe for breakfast which is just warm milk poured over buttered toast.
When you label someone "milquetoast" or "a milquetoast" you're calling them an over-accommodating, wimpy pushover. Caspar Milquetoast's primary attribute was that he would do anything anyone ever asked him to, even if it made his own life more difficult, because he had no backbone and wanted please everyone.
As here, where he must rearrange and set down (possibly drop) his armload of packages to give a hobo a light. He could've said no. Many people would. But that's not his nature; he puts himself last. He's kind of what we now call "a simp."
I mean, you can go ahead and spell it wrong if that's important to you--you were probably using it wrong, anyway--but "milktoast" will never mean the same as "milquetoast."
Words mean things, and language is full of fascinating ones like this.
should I block for this
yes
no
