A grammar of quickstick errors
« previous post | next post »
Chopsticks: in cookery, designates:
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014
That's for the English word, now for the Chinese:
The Old Chinese words for "chopsticks" were zhù 箸 (OC *das) and jiā 梜 (OC *keːb). Zhù 箸 is preserved in almost all Min dialects (Taiwanese tī, tū; Fuzhou dê̤ṳ) and some other dialects, especially those in some contact with Min; it is also preserved in loans to other languages, e.g., Korean 젓가락 (jeotgarak), Vietnamese đũa and Zhuang dawh. Starting from the Ming Dynasty, the change to kuàizi 筷子 occurred in Mandarin, Wu, and some Cantonese dialects. The 15th century book Shuyuan Miscellanies (《菽園雜記》) by Lu Rong (陸容) mentioned this change:
The bamboo radical (zhu [the sound is not relevant here 竹) was later added to kuài 快 to form kuài 筷.
(source, with some additions by VHM)
Enough for the origin of the term. How about the usage of the implement in Japanese?
A Japanese Glossary of Chopsticks Faux Pas
Culture Food and Drink Jun 28, 2022
An overview of chopsticks gaffes that are best avoided when eating in Japan.
From bad manners to taboo, there are certain ways of using chopsticks that are considered as going against dining etiquette. These various acts, known as kiraibashi, are listed below.
(Listed in Japanese syllabary order)
あげ箸 Agebashi
To raise the chopsticks above the height of one’s mouth.
洗い箸 Araibashi
To clean the chopsticks in soup or beverages.
合わせ箸 Awasebashi (also known as 拾い箸 hiroibashi or 箸渡し hashiwatashi)
!!! (Serious) To pass food from one pair of chopsticks to another. This is taboo due to the custom after a cremation service of picking up remains and passing them between chopsticks.
受け箸 Ukebashi
To hold out one’s bowl for more while still holding chopsticks.
移り箸 Utsuribashi (also known as 渡り箸 wataribashi)
To keep putting the chopsticks into the same side dishes. It is proper etiquette to first eat rice, move on to eat from a side dish, eat rice again, and then eat from a different side dish.
うら箸 Urabashi (also known asそら箸 sorabashi)
To pick up food with the chopsticks and then put it back without taking it.
拝み箸 Ogamibashi
To hold the chopsticks between both hands when expressing thanks for the food. It is considered rude to hold objects in your hands when in prayer and it is taboo to hold the chopsticks while saying Itadakimasu, a phrase said before eating, giving thanks for the life of the food.
押し込み箸 Oshikomibashi (also known as 込み箸 komibashi)
To use the chopsticks to push food deep inside one’s mouth.
落とし箸 Otoshibashi
To drop the chopsticks while eating.
返し箸 Kaeshibashi (also known as 逆さ箸 sakasabashi)
To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the tips of the chopsticks that have touched one’s mouth do not touch the food.
かき箸 Kakibashi (also known as かき込み箸 kakikomibashi)
To place one’s mouth against the side of a dish and push food in with the chopsticks. This can also mean to use the chopsticks to scratch one’s head or other parts of the body.
かみ箸 Kamibashi
To bite the chopsticks.
くわえ箸 Kuwaebashi
To take the tips of the chopsticks in one’s mouth.
こじ箸 Kojibashi (also known as ほじり箸 hojiribashi)
To use the chopsticks to pick something out from near the bottom of the dish.
こすり箸 Kosuribashi
To rub waribashi (disposable chopsticks) together to remove splinters.
探り箸 Saguribashi
To use the chopsticks to stir the food around to find something.
刺し箸 Sashibashi (also known as 突き箸 tsukibashi)
To use the chopsticks to stab food and skewer it.
指し箸 Sashibashi
To point at people and things using chopsticks.
じか箸 Jikabashi
To use one’s own chopsticks instead of serving chopsticks to take food from a large serving dish.
透かし箸 Sukashibashi
After eating the top half of a fish, to use the chopsticks to keep eating by poking between the bones instead of removing them.
せせり箸 Seseribashi
To use the chopsticks to keep poking food around.
そろえ箸 Soroebashi
To hold chopsticks together and tap them on a dish or the top of the table to align the tips.
たたき箸 Tatakibashi
To make a noise by tapping chopsticks on a dish.
立て箸 Tatebashi (also known as 突き立て箸 tsukitatebashi, 仏箸 hotokebashi)
!!! (Serious) To stand chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice. This is taboo, as it is the way rice is presented as a Buddhist funeral offering.
違い箸 Chigaibashi
To use chopsticks that are made of different materials (for example, one made from wood and the other made from bamboo).
ちぎり箸 Chigiribashi
To hold one chopstick in each hand and use them like a knife and fork to tear or cut food into smaller pieces.
調伏箸 Chōbukubashi
To place the chopsticks on the table with the tips pointing to the right.
涙箸 Namidabashi
To allow sauce or soup to drip from the tips of the chopsticks when eating. Namida means “tears.”
握り箸 Nigiribashi
To grip both chopsticks in a fist.
ねぶり箸 Neburibashi
To lick the chopsticks.
橋箸 Hashibashi (also known as渡し箸 watashibashi)
To place the chopsticks like a bridge across the top of a dish to show one is finished. Chopsticks should be placed on the hashioki (chopstick rest).
はね箸 Hanebashi
To use chopsticks to push aside food that one does not want to eat.
振り上げ箸 Furiagebashi
To raise the tips of the chopsticks higher than the back of one’s hand.
振り箸 Furibashi
To shake off soup, sauce, or small bits of food from the tips of the chopsticks.
惑い箸 Madoibashi (also known as 迷い箸 mayoibashi)
To keep one’s chopsticks hovering over the dishes, unable to decide which food to eat.
回し箸 Mawashibashi
To stir soup with the chopsticks.
もぎくわえ Mogikuwae
To put chopsticks sideways in one’s mouth instead of placing them on the table when moving a dish.
もぎ箸 Mogibashi
To bite off and eat grains of rice that are stuck to the chopsticks.
持ち箸 Mochibashi
To hold both chopsticks and a dish in one hand at the same time.
楊枝箸 Yōjibashi
To use a chopstick like a toothpick.
横箸 Yokobashi
To line the chopsticks up together and use them like a spoon to scoop up food.
寄せ箸 Yosebashi
To pull a dish toward oneself using chopsticks.
(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)
Selected readings
"Chop-chop and chopsticks" (11/28/13)
"Character Amnesia" (7/22/10)
[Thanks to Don Keyser]
JPL said,
June 28, 2022 @ 12:31 am
In West African Pidgin English the word 'chop' refers to "food"; it can also be used as a verb referring to the act of eating, and it can be used in compounds: e.g., 'chohbohks' (chop + box) refers to a large box or trunk used to store food. There exist connections among the various pidgin Englishes spoken in different parts of the world.
Philip Taylor said,
June 28, 2022 @ 4:09 am
Intrigued that both of the following are considered kiraibashiin Japan. In my wife's Chinese/Vietnamese culture, both are considered the norm —
返し箸 Kaeshibashi (also known as 逆さ箸 sakasabashi) — to turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the tips of the chopsticks that have touched one’s mouth do not touch the food.
かき箸 Kakibashi (also known as かき込み箸 kakikomibashi) — to place one’s mouth against the side of a dish and push food in with the chopsticks. (I am assuming that "the side of a dish" includes "the side of one's rice bowl" here — if not, then I fully understand the proscription).
There may be others — I paused reading at this point in order to comment.
Laura Morland said,
June 28, 2022 @ 4:32 am
Oh, dear —
I'd thought I was doing pretty well in the chopsticks etiquette department, but as I moved further down the list, I realized that I've been guilty of:
こじ箸 Kojibashi (to use the chopsticks to pick something out from near the bottom of the dish),
もぎ箸 Mogibashi (to bite off and eat grains of rice that are stuck to the chopsticks),
回し箸 Mawashibashi (to stir soup with the chopsticks), and
橋箸 Hashibashi (to place the chopsticks like a bridge across the top of a dish to show one is finished).
I can't imagine how I'll be able to fully enjoy my miso soup in future! And what to do with those sticky grains of rice… and the folorn bits of food at the bottom of my dish?
Fun fact: in French, chopsticks are called "baguettes"!
(French likes to call any long, skinny object a baguette: e.g., an orchestra director's baton, a magician's wand, and the thin plastic covering used to hide electrical wiring.)
Benjamin E. Orsatti said,
June 28, 2022 @ 6:20 am
These read like Halacha: “違い箸 Chigaibashi
To use chopsticks that are made of different materials (for example, one made from wood and the other made from bamboo“
Maybe the sons and daughters of Abraham _didn’t_ have to go without Chinese food for as long as we had initially thought. Maybe there were folded paper boxes and fortune cookie wrappers littering the foot of Mt. Sinai…
Chris Button said,
June 28, 2022 @ 9:08 am
I’ve always felt this to be apocryphal.
@ JPL
Yes, my wife’s family from the English-speaking part of Cameroon use that term. I’m assuming it’s a coincidence but it does fit very nicely with the sense of “chopsticks”!
Daniel Barkalow said,
June 28, 2022 @ 10:40 am
This sounds (mostly) like a list of things you shouldn't do in a formal setting but people normally do at home.
Peter B. Golden said,
June 28, 2022 @ 11:19 am
In Uyghur it is: čoka ( چہکا) čoka, čökɛ, clearly not a native Turkic term. L. Ligeti notes čöki in his "Un vocabulaire sino-ouïgour des Ming" AOH, XX (1966), p. 154 "baguettes (pour manger)." In the 14th century Rasūlid Hexaglot, f. 190, C, 7 we find šökü ( شوكو), the earliest attestation of it in Turkic (as least as far as I know). In Arabic it is defined as ʻudāni yukalu bihīma al-rišta ("two pieces of wood with which one eats macaroni"), see P.B. Golden, "Chopsticks and Pasta in Medieval Turkic Cuisine" Rocznik Orientalistyczny, 49 (1994-1995), pp, 73-82 and The King's Dictionary. The Rasūlid Hexaglot: Fourteenth Century Vocabularies in Arabic, Persian, Turkic, Greek, Armenian and Mongol, ed. P.B. Golden (Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill, 2000), p.112.
Philip Taylor said,
June 28, 2022 @ 2:36 pm
Peter, I am intrigued by the translation of ʻudāni yukalu bihīma al-rišta as "two pieces of wood with which one eats macaroni". To what extent is "macaroni" fundamental to the translation ? Could it have been translated, for example, as "two pieces of wood with which one eats noodles" (or "pasta") or is "macaroni" an exact translation of the Arabic word ?
AntC said,
June 28, 2022 @ 4:59 pm
To keep putting the chopsticks into the same side dishes. It is proper etiquette to first eat rice, move on to eat from a side dish, eat rice again, and then eat from a different side dish.
It's always somewhat concerned me that everybody is putting chopsticks in their mouth, then into shared dishes — even when 'cleaning' the sticks in rice between dishes.
Is this hygienic? Especially in Covid times, does this spread germs through all the dishes? (Or are we finding that Covid isn't spread by physical contact, but only via aerosols, so all that wiping down surfaces wasn't needed?)
cameron said,
June 28, 2022 @ 5:26 pm
it should be noted that French "baguette" literally means "stick", or "baton". it's use as the name for a kind of bread is a secondary usage
skimming through the mouseover texts for the links to the Chopsticks pages in various languages on Wikipedia, it seems like most languages simply call them "eating sticks"
Chris Button said,
June 28, 2022 @ 9:37 pm
So the earliest attested form is at the tail end of Early Mandarin (EM)? Whether we can take it any further back in Late Middle Chinese (LMC) is presumably unknown.
How inconceivable is it that 筷 EM *kʰwaj ← LMC *kʰwaːj is a butchered form of 梜 EM *kjaː ← LMC *kjaːp (tones unmarked) as we lose that labial -p coda?
John Swindle said,
June 29, 2022 @ 1:43 am
こすり箸 Kosuribashi
To rub waribashi (disposable chopsticks) together to remove splinters.
So just use them with the splinters? The breadth of my ignorance is staggering.
Chris Button said,
June 29, 2022 @ 10:07 am
橋箸 Hashibashi
Love it. Not least because the “hashi” is the bridge rather than the chopsticks since the “h” in “hashi” for chopsticks has become “b” (as regularly so in all the other examples)
The two “hashi”s here nicely dovetail into the recent discussion about Japanese pitch accent too (along with a third hashi 端)
Daniel Barkalow said,
June 29, 2022 @ 10:28 am
@John Swindle:
I think it's rude to imply that the chopsticks might have splinters, and that this is something that's poor manners to do when someone has gone to the trouble to make everything perfect, but just sensible to do otherwise.
AntC said,
June 29, 2022 @ 5:02 pm
I think it's rude to imply that the chopsticks might have splinters
Those cheap disposable chopsticks certainly do have splinters, no mere "implying" about it. It would be even worse "poor manners" to start poking around inside a mouth full of food to pull a splinter out of your gum.
gone to the trouble to make everything perfect,
should include providing decent chopsticks.
Jenny Chu said,
June 29, 2022 @ 9:17 pm
AntC – a lot of Hong Kong people complain about mainland Chinese failing to use the serving chopsticks (which are in any case often a different color from the eating chopsticks). It is mentioned as an example "proving" that the mainlanders are unhygienic. This was before COVID-19.
wanda said,
June 29, 2022 @ 11:51 pm
Yes, also curious about "Kaeshibashi." This practice was taught to me as the norm, but of course if there are actually serving utensils you should use those instead. Maybe it is only a faux pas in a setting where there aren't serving chopsticks? Certainly, turning your chopsticks around is more sanitary than double-dipping with the end that goes in your mouth!
Josh R. said,
June 30, 2022 @ 7:37 pm
John Swindle said,
"So just use them with the splinters? The breadth of my ignorance is staggering."
Modern machine-made disposable chopsticks are pre-split at the end of the chopsticks that go in your mouth. There is little chance of getting splinters in your mouth unless you're using such low-end chopsticks that no one's going to care about kiraibashi.
But the point really is, if you need to remove splinters from your disposable chopsticks, you do it carefully with by hand, not just rubbing the chopsticks together in polite company.