Steak Fingers (West Texas drive-in food, 1950s) (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 10/11/07, Barry A. Popik <Bapopik at aol.com> wrote:
>
> In a message dated 10/11/2007 10:50:51 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL writes:
>
> Isn't  the relevant sense of "finger" already covered in the  OED?:
>
> 9. a. A short and narrow piece of any  material.    b. Short for
> finger-biscuit (see 14b).
>
> 1846  FRANCATELLI Mod. Cook 397 Fingers, or Naples biscuits. 1865 Atheneum
> No. 1989.  803/2 Elderberry wine and fingers of toast.
>
> The fact that it is  colocated with steak, chicken, or any of several other
> items (Googling shows  catfish, turkey, pork, beef, potato, sweet potato,
> shrimp, calamari, eggplant,  cornbread, french toast, doughnut, etc.) doesn't
> necessarily mean it should  get a new entry, does it?
>
> Yes, it is true that there are many foods that are called "fingers." But =20
> "steak fingers" are more than merely "short and narrow pieces" of steak. They
> are breaded and deep-fried.=20

As are "chicken fingers", of course, and presumably other fingers of
the meat variety. From a quick search of the databases, I see chicken
fingers of the deep-fried variety (as opposed to chicken finger
sandwiches and the like) showing up in a May 1971 Art Buchwald column
about a DC sandwich shop that sold something called "The Goldflnger"
("boneless all-white meat deep-fried chicken fingers topped with cole
slaw, Russian dressing and pickle slices on a double-twist seeded
roll").

So "chicken fingers" are perhaps not quite as old as the Texan "steak
fingers" of the '50s, but they're certainly better known now thanks to
national chains like KFC. In any case, it looks like the OED needs a
new sense for "finger" to cover the deep-fried fast-food genre, but
individual entries for "steak fingers", "chicken fingers", etc., don't
seem warranted.


--Ben Zimmer

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