# End pieces of a bread  [heel, crust, end]



## Thomas1

Hello,

We have in Polish some names (they are rather used in informal registers) for the first slice of bread, I've been thinking myself if there's such a term in English, as well. Do you use any special name for the first sliced piece of bread in your area/country?

Thanks in advance,
Thomas


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## You little ripper!

Thomas1 said:
			
		

> Hello,
> 
> We have in Polish some names (they are rather used in informal registers) for the first slice of bread, I've been thinking myself if there's such a term in English, as well. Do you use any special name for the first sliced piece of bread in your area/country?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Thomas


Hi Thomas,

I don't know of any specific name for the first slice but the outside of the bread is known as the 'crust'.  There is the top, bottom and side crusts.  The first and the last slice of bread are generally known as the end crusts.


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## Jana337

Could it be a heel of bread?

Jana


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## foxfirebrand

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Could it be a heel of bread?
> Jana


As a native AE speaker, I can corroborate this-- it's exactly right.  And right out of the oven, the lowly heel is the best part of the loaf.
.


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## You little ripper!

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Could it be a heel of bread?
> 
> Jana


The heel of the loaf!  That's it!  Apparently if a woman prefers the heel of the loaf when she's pregnant then she's going to have a boy.


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## cuchuflete

foxfirebrand said:
			
		

> As a native AE speaker, I can corroborate this-- it's exactly right. And right out of the oven, the lowly heel is the best part of the loaf.
> .



And, as another native AE speaker, I can state that heel is both correct and a pretty uncommon usage, at least in the eastern part of the U.S.

I usually hear "crust" or, once in a while, "end piece".


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## jinti

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> And, as another native AE speaker, I can state that heel is both correct and a pretty uncommon usage, at least in the eastern part of the U.S.
> 
> I usually hear "crust" or, once in a while, "end piece".


 
Really?  I generally say "heel". (I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and now find myself unable to escape from New York.  )  "End" would work for me, too.


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## foxfirebrand

You poor "end piece" people-- you're talking about *pre-sliced* bread!  The stuff you buy that way!  Worst thing since bleached flour.  Or "steam-rolled" oats.
.


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## river

"End crust" is also used.


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## la reine victoria

Thomas1 said:
			
		

> Hello,
> 
> We have in Polish some names (they are rather used in informal registers) for the first slice of bread, I've been thinking myself if there's such a term in English, as well. Do you use any special name for the first sliced piece of bread in your area/country?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Thomas


 
In England we call the first slice *'the crust'*.  My Scottish mother called it *'the heel'*.

There is a term in English - *'upper crust'* - which is a reference to the more aristocratic members of society.  Only yesterday I learned how this came into being.  Centuries ago, at mealtimes, when a new loaf was taken from the oven, the first slice from the top of the loaf (not the ends) was given to the person of the highest social standing (it was considered to be the best piece of the bread) and that person was called *'upper crust'.*

You could class me as *'end crust'* since there's nothing I like more than the first slice from a warm loaf, spread thickly with butter!


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## panjandrum

It's the heel over here (Ireland) as well.
We fought for it as kids, but they are now often fed to the birds - or the bin.


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## ElaineG

> Really? I generally say "heel". (I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and now find myself unable to escape from New York.  ) "End" would work for me, too.


 
Agreed *jinti*, I'd say "heel" also.


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## JLanguage

I've always called the first slice of bread an "end piece", but this term also applies to the last slice of bread.


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## panjandrum

JLanguage said:
			
		

> I've always called the first slice of bread an "end piece", but this term also applies to the last slice of bread.


Good point - first slice, last slice - both are heels.

The OED, strangely (to me), suggests that the heel of a loaf of bread is the top or bottom crust, not either end.


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## majlo

My Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, also strangely to me, does not suggest anything  yet my PWN-Oxford Polish-English says it is _a heel_. Anyway, in Polish we call it _piętka _literallymeaning _heel_. I have even heard the name _dupka _hehe which literally means _a little bottom_.


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## You little ripper!

la reine victoria said:
			
		

> In England we call the first slice *'the crust'*.  My Scottish mother called it *'the heel'*.
> 
> There is a term in English - *'upper crust'* - which is a reference to the more aristocratic members of society. Only yesterday I learned how this came into being. Centuries ago, at mealtimes, when a new loaf was taken from the oven, the first slice from the top of the loaf (not the ends) was given to the person of the highest social standing (it was considered to be the best piece of the bread) and that person was called *'upper crust'.*
> 
> You could class me as *'end crust'* since there's nothing I like more than the first slice from a warm loaf, spread thickly with butter!


I would have thought from your name, la reine victoria, that you would have been more an upper crust lady. 
Australians generally call it the "end bit".


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## You little ripper!

majlo said:
			
		

> My Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, also strangely to me, does not suggest anything  yet my PWN-Oxford Polish-English says it is _a heel_. Anyway, in Polish we call it _piętka _literallymeaning _heel_. I have even heard the name _dupka _hehe which literally means _a little bottom_.


My father, who is Italian, calls it "il cozzo" which means "butt", so the "butt of the bread".


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## majlo

The same down here.  a little bottom, a little butt, they are both pretty much the same


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## Lun-14

This discussion has been added to a previous thread: Cagey, moderator 

Hi Forum!

What do you call the end pieces (both right and left ones) of a bread in English, i.e., is there any specific names for end pieces?

See the picture here:






Thanks very much


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## You little ripper!

What do you call the end of a loaf bread?

_Many Americans call the end of a loaf of bread the "heel" more than any other words, according to a linguistics survey conducted by a Harvard professor. Other words commonly used are end, crust and butt. .........._


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## sound shift

I call it "the crust".
(By the way, we don't say "the end pieces of a bread"; we say "the end pieces of a loaf".)


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## Englishmypassion

"Butt" sounds so...


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## heypresto

I recently came across 'heel' (in this context) for the first time through trying to write a cryptic crossword clue for it, but the word I've always known and used is 'crust'.


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## Keith Bradford

It's the *crust *in BE.  Best part.  The people who originally had a right to it were the nobles -- "the upper crust".

Perhaps Americans don't know this because American bread is so soft.  Last week I saw some wrapped bread (in a French supermarket ) that had no crusts at all, side, top or ends - it was marketed as American.  Everyone knows, surely, that the way to test a loaf (yes indeed, Soundshift!) is to tap it on the base.  The bottom crust should sound hollow.


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## You little ripper!

Englishmypassion said:


> "Butt" sounds so...


 ..... unappetizing?!!!


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## Englishmypassion

You little ripper! said:


> ..... unappetizing?!!!



May be the opposite for some.

I never knew about the crust connection. Thanks a lot for the information, Keith. Thanks all.


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## Lun-14

Thanks all. I've heard that the right crust (as marked with an arrow above in the pic) is called "heel"; while the left crust is called "tail". Is that right?


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## heypresto

How can you tell which is the right and left end of a loaf of bread? What happens when you turn it around, or stand on the other side of the table?


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## You little ripper!

Lun-14 said:


> Thanks all. I've heard that the right crust (as marked with an arrow above in the pic) is called "heel"; while the left crust is called "tail". Is that right?


Where did you hear this Lun? It makes no sense to me at all!


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## Franco-filly

Me neither.  And if you turn the loaf around does the heel become the tail?


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## You little ripper!

Franco-filly said:


> And if you turn the loaf around does the heel become the tail?


And if you touched the opposite end of the tail would you feel a right heel (or a left one)?!!!


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## Hermione Golightly

Such ignorance! "Heels squeals; tails wails". (and I know the grammar's wrong).


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## natkretep

Does no-one just say 'bread end'?


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## Edinburgher

I call them the ends.
The crust is the entire surface of the loaf, so it's not just the two end pieces, but also the front and back and top and bottom.

As for the crusts being the best part, why do we cut them off when making cucumber sandwiches?  Or do we just do it when Great-aunt Ethel comes to visit?  She has no teeth, you know, but no-one speaks about it; we just let her believe that crust-less sandwiches are normal. We're such heels, aren't we?  The discarded crusts don't go to waste, of course.  They get chopped up, roasted, and used as croutons.  Needless to say, Ethel has her soup without.


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## ewie

To avoid embarrassment, lawsuits etc., we should all keep our butts and tails (and heels too, for that matter) covered at all times.

The ends are _crusts_ to me too, no matter which direction I'm facing.


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## Packard

When I was growing up my mom sent me (on bicycle) to the bakery every Sunday to buy a "seeded rye sliced".  When I would get home my sister would say "I get the end pieces!"

So I will go with "end pieces", especially on the types of bread where the crust is cherished.

The loaves of rye bread were tapered at the ends and the first few slices were useless in a sandwich (but fine for toasting and adding cream cheese).


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## velisarius

The shape of the ends of the loaves in Packard's photo show us why some people talk about the "heel" of the loaf - there is a resemblance to the rounded heel of one's foot. On a sandwich loaf like the one in the OP, the term might be puzzling for non-natives.

I prefer the crusty ends, and I might say "I bag the end bit". "Heel" sounds to me a bit technical for everyday use.


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## GreenWhiteBlue

I have always called the end piece the "heel."  Simply saying "crust" does not work, because every slice that has some part of the exterior on it has a "crust", which is the darkened exterior of the whole loaf.


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## JulianStuart

I grew up in England and the end slices of the loaf were called "the crusts".  The rest of the hard outer part was _un_countabe "crust".  My first girlfriend was from Scotland and she referred to the end bits as "the heely bits".  Just adding to the database


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## JustKate

Until reading this thread, I had no idea that anybody ever called those *anything* besides "the heel." I learn so much here. And no, Lun-14, among those of us who use the term "the heel," there isn't one name for one end-piece and a different name for the other. They are both called "the heel."


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## pob14

My wife and her family (who have lived in California, Ohio, Illinois, and Australia, so I can't place it regionally) call it the "knuckle."  I've never heard that anywhere else (I use "heel").


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## Packard

JustKate said:


> Until reading this thread, I had no idea that anybody ever called those *anything* besides "the heel." I learn so much here. And no, Lun-14, among those of us who use the term "the heel," there isn't one name for one end-piece and a different name for the other. They are both called "the heel."



And until reading this thread, I had no idea that anyone used the term "the heel".  I never heard of it before.


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## JustKate

Packard said:


> And until reading this thread, I had no idea that anyone used the term "the heel".  I never heard of it before.


Wow, really? Because it's very, very, *very* common, both here in Indiana and in California, my home state.


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## Packard

JustKate said:


> Wow, really? Because it's very, very, *very* common, both here in Indiana and in California, my home state.



Really.  I would have had no idea what you were talking about.


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## JustKate

Packard said:


> Really.  I would have had no idea what you were talking about.


I learn *so* much here.


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## JulianStuart

I had no idea either, until I met the young lady from Edinburgh.
(Isn't this the kind of information linguists can use to track the spread of language forms, the way geneticists track the spread of (human) genes from Africa out to the rest of the world?)


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## Keith Bradford

Thinking hard, I believe I have once heard of the _heel_, meaning the stale *final *crust of the loaf, when all else is eaten.  (Or perhaps it was the heel of a block of cheese?)  At any rate it was the leftover, not the nice fresh crust.


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## ewie

Keith Bradford said:


> Thinking hard, I believe I have once heard of the _heel_, meaning the stale *final *crust of the loaf, when all else is eaten.  (Or perhaps it was the heel of a block of cheese?)  At any rate it was the leftover, not the nice fresh crust.


Yep, that rings definite bells for me too
Ah, here's a thing:


> Hard cheeses, as opposed to soft cheeses, were favoured by the working classes as a regular part of their diet, partly because even when the heel of the cheese was too hard to eat, the ends could be toasted.


~_How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died_, Paul Clayton & Judith Rowbotham, 2009

Mind you, I've no idea what the difference is between the _heel_ and the _end_ of a cheese


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## Sparky Malarky

Wow.

Regarding all these Brits who don't know what the heel of bread is , I echo Kate's astonishment.  I've never heard it called anything else, although we don't actually sit around discussing bread all that often.

But it's certainly not the crust.  The *crust* is the outside of the bread.  If it is white bread, the inside of the bread is white.  The crust is the brown part on the outside.  Every slice in the loaf has crust on it, and every sandwich will have crust unless you cut the crusts off.  But the end slice is all crust on one side.  That slice is the heel. 

I've never heard of it being called the *tail* either, but you can call almost the last of anything a tail.  So you might look in the cabinet and find a wrapper with only one or two slices of bread and the heel, and you might say "We have the tail-end of a loaf of bread."


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## JulianStuart

Sparky Malarky said:


> Wow.
> 
> Regarding all these Brits who don't know what the heel of bread is , I echo Kate's astonishment.  I've never heard it called anything else, although we don't actually sit around discussing bread all that often.


22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From One Another
Given the variation among AE speakers, perhaps it should be added as a question for ths survey


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## Andygc

Sparky Malarky said:


> But the end slice is all crust on one side.


Which is why, in BE, that's called "a crust".


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## Packard

Andygc said:


> Which is why, in BE, that's called "a crust".



It rarely comes up, but for me a "crust" has to be hard and brittle to some extent.  

I frequently bring in a bakery loaf of bread on Fridays for the office to share.  A coworker with poor dentition requested that I bring in a loaf without a hard crust.  

The "crust" on commercial white bread seems more like "brown stuff" than a "crust".


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## JulianStuart

Indeed - they have such soft white bread in the UK too.  The crust is the outside of the loaf but, although it isn't always _hard_ these days, it's always harder than the inside")


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## You little ripper!

velisarius said:


> The shape of the ends of the loaves in Packard's photo show us why some people talk about the "heel" of the loaf - there is a resemblance to the rounded heel of one's foot.


Exactly! That's pretty much how all bread used to look in my younger days. I use 'ends' for the rectangular loaf shown in the OP.


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## RM1(SS)

We called them "tails" when I was a kid, but I've been calling them "heels" since I learned that was the most common term.


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## Wordsmyth

If we're talking about he floppy end-piece of a sliced loaf, as illustrated by Lun-14 in post #1, then I join my compatriots in calling it the "crust" — not because it's crusty (because it isn't), but, I suppose, because it _would be_ crusty on a proper unsliced tin-loaf (of the kind that Keith mentions in #6);

However, the moment we move our sights to bread of a different shape, such as in Pack's pic in #18, or baguettes, or any of a huge choice of loaves with tapered, rounded ends, then there are other possibilities. In my family that kind of end-piece has always been a "knobby", but I've also heard "knob end", "nub", "nubby" ...

Do names like that ring any bells, at least with some of my fellow Brits?

Ws


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## Edinburgher

Wordsmyth said:


> Do names like that ring any bells, at least with some of my fellow Brits?


At least one of them rings the wrong bell, old son, as you jolly well ought to know!


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## PaulQ

No. 

Regardless of the type or shape:





JulianStuart said:


> I grew up in England and the end slices of the loaf were called "the crusts". The rest of the hard outer part was _un_countabe "crust".


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## ewie

Wordsmyth said:


> Do names like that ring any bells, at least with some of my fellow Brits?


I call the ends of baguettes _nub-ends_.


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## Wordsmyth

ewie said:


> I call the ends of baguettes _nub-ends_.


 Ah now, for me, that's what you'd find in ashtrays ... or maybe tucked behind a carpenter's ear!


Edinburgher said:


> At least one of them rings the wrong bell, old son, as you jolly well ought to know!


Not sure I do (know), Edi. Unless you're talking about possible double meanings of a genitalial nature ...?? If so, it wouldn't be the first or last time that happened in our delightful language!

Ws


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## ewie

Wordsmyth said:


> Ah now, for me, that's what you'd find in ashtrays ...


I call those _nub-ends_ too.  In fact I call any small stumpy end of something a _nub-end_. [Oh dear, we're veering back toward the genitological, I fear ...]


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## Edinburgher

Wordsmyth said:


> Unless you're talking about possible double meanings of a genitalial nature


Obviously.  Talk of knob-ends has no place in polite conversation (save for academic purposes, of course) and should remain confined to its birthplace: the gutter.


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## JustKate

Edinburgher said:


> Obviously.  Talk of knob-ends has no place in polite conversation (save for academic purposes, of course) and should remain confined to its birthplace: the gutter.


By this reasoning, nobody should ever call his child Richard because he might then be nicknamed "Dick," and that's a word that belongs in the gutter, too. If _knob-end_ is what some people call the ends of loaves, the term obviously belongs other places besides the gutter.


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## Wordsmyth

Edinburgher said:


> Talk of knob-ends has no place in polite conversation (save for academic purposes, of course) and should remain confined to its birthplace: the gutter.


Not sure how serious you're being, but I think it's a great shame when words with legitimate, inoffensive meanings become 'unusable' just because some vulgar slang (or politically incorrect) meaning is added to the list, often only in minority usage. In other instances of multiple meanings, the word continues to be used, and the meaning is usually clear from context. Why, then, should the fact that one meaning is offensive to some people cause the word to be 'banned' even for its other (usually earlier) meanings? Banishing such words can only impoverish a language, and for no good reason.

Kate's post has just popped up, saving me the time and effort of saying virtually the same thing. Thanks, Kate.

Here's an interesting set of posts, showing a huge variety of real-life names for the end-pieces of a loaf (in which "knob-end" appears twice). Any attempt to reproduce even a tenth of them here would break the 'no lists' rule, but as a taster there are the more common ones (including several we've already seen in this thread): crust, (k)nobby, nobble, knob-end, nubbin, outsider, heel, ... and some decidedly rarer ones: topper, mopper, bookend, bird's bit, Marmite noggy, donkey end, duck bread, ...

Ws


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## ewie

Wordsmyth said:


> duck bread


reminds me that I call this kind of bread (virtually crustless) _pigeon bread




_


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## london calling

Packard said:


> And until reading this thread, I had no idea that anyone used the term "the heel".  I never heard of it before.


Neither had I. I've always said 'the crust' too.


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## Edinburgher

Wordsmyth said:


> Not sure how serious you're being,


Let's just say "not entirely flippant".


Wordsmyth said:


> but I think it's a great shame when words with legitimate, inoffensive meanings become 'unusable' just because some vulgar slang (or politically incorrect) meaning is added to the list,


I agree with your sentiment.  My plea in mitigation is that I had (perhaps mistakenly) assumed (because I had never heard it used in that context before, but only in the gutter (not that I spend much time there, you understand))  that the term in relation to bread was not entirely legitimate and inoffensive, but rather derived from its vulgar usage.  My assumption seems somewhat justified by the fact that some loaves (Packard's in #36 come close, but you only have to consider the typical French baguette) do have rather a phallic appearance.


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## Cagey

Keith Bradford said:


> Thinking hard, I believe I have once heard of the _heel_, meaning the stale *final *crust of the loaf, when all else is eaten.  (Or perhaps it was the heel of a block of cheese?)  At any rate it was the leftover, not the nice fresh crust.


That's how I've used it too, in far-off California.  The crust is the first cut of the bread, and something to be coveted when the bread first comes out of the oven. (My brother and I had to share it if we both were around when the bread was done.) The heel is at the other end, and not as appealing once the bread has been around for a while. 

We call the browned surface surrounding the loaf the 'crust' as well, without any confusion as far as I can remember.


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## Edinburgher

Cagey said:


> The heel is at the other end, and not as appealing


Why didn't you just start from both ends, thereby getting two crusts and no heel?


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## JulianStuart

Edinburgher said:


> Why didn't you just start from both ends, thereby getting two crusts and no heel?


Then the inside gets stale sooner - from both ends


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## DePorAhí

Also, if it's pre-sliced and sold in a bag you'd have slices falling all over the floor while you try get to the "heel" at the bottom of the bag!   
(I grew up saying "heel," for both ends; learned this from my parents who are from the mid-west US.)


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## Myridon

With a mass-produced sandwich loaf, many Americans do not eat either heel.  The bag is thrown away with *both *stale, final ends.  They are both heels.
I suppose the "front" heel also protects the next slice of bread.


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## Wordsmyth

Edinburgher said:


> My plea in mitigation is that I had (perhaps mistakenly) assumed (because I had never heard it used in that context before, but only in the gutter (not that I spend much time there, you understand)) that the term in relation to bread was not entirely legitimate and inoffensive, but rather derived from its vulgar usage.


 Ah, OK, I can see how you'd get to where you were if you made that assumption. I just couldn't see why you would assume that. Maybe this was because I'd already heard the term used innocuously in the bread context; also because I was aware of the very wide range of application of the word _knob_ since the 14th century. Apart from some more specific meanings, it has been used for pretty much any rounded protuberance, with no phallic reference.

What I didn't know, however, was how far back _knob_ has been used to mean _penis_. There doesn't seem to be much documentation on it, but I have found this article, which suggests it wasn't used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, that it did then appear in the 17th century, and that it disappeared thereafter (or went 'underground') until the 20th century. To me that suggests that any phrase involving_ "knob"_ is statistically more likely to have been born well outside your 'gutter' than in it.



Edinburgher said:


> My assumption seems somewhat justified by the fact that some loaves (Packard's in #36 come close, but you only have to consider the typical French baguette) do have rather a phallic appearance


Or is it that the appearance of a phallus is rather like that of a baguette? (A question that's not entirely flippant).

So long live the _knob-end_ (not so very different from the more common _knobby_). May they repose proudly in polite conversation, and may they long bring pleasure to lovers of the baker's art.

Ws


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## Edinburgher

Wordsmyth said:


> What I didn't know, however, was how far back _knob_ has been used to mean _penis_.


Given the "rounded protuberance" connection, I don't think it means _penis_, it means the _glans penis_.  By that token _knob-end_ is somewhat pleonastic.


Wordsmyth said:


> Or is it that the appearance of a phallus is rather like that of a baguette?


No way.  This is hardly a chicken-or-egg question.  Given that baguettes were invented by humans, it's safe to assume that phalluses came first. An interesting question might be whether baguettes were created in their image, and whether bakers tried to outdo each other in a "mine's bigger than yours" sort of way.


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## suzi br

GreenWhiteBlue said:


> Simply saying "crust" does not work, because every slice that has some part of the exterior on it has a "crust", which is the darkened exterior of the whole loaf.


It works fine in the UK. 
Those two end pieces are the crusts. 
In our house we call the stumpy heel bits from a hand-shaped loaf "noggins". I don't know if that is regional or just our family!


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## Wordsmyth

Edinburgher said:


> Given the "rounded protuberance" connection, I don't think it means _penis_, it means the _glans penis_. By that token _knob-end_ is somewhat pleonastic.


No doubt.


Edinburgher said:


> No way. This is hardly a chicken-or-egg question.


Precisely my point. Nothing says that in a comparison the datum must be the earlier occurrence. All of which would be a very interesting side-discussion, but doesn't produce any actual evidence for the term _knob-end_ (bread) being influenced by considerations of human anatomy.




suzi br said:


> In our house we call the stumpy heel bits from a hand-shaped loaf "noggins". I don't know if that is regional or just our family!


It seems it might well be regional, suzi. The Dialect Dictionary gives _noggin_ (with the meaning "thick piece of bread or the head") as Black Country dialect — so not a million miles from Stoke.
_Noggin_ is also mentioned (as "end of a loaf of bread") in the Urban Dictionary, entry 4, item 3.

Ws


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