top and tail

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 18, 2012, at 1:29 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> I came across instructions to "top and tail" a fennel bulb in the London
> edition of Flavour magazine (Feb 2012). Although the instructions are
> obvious to a cook/chef, they are not transparent. On the other hand, the
> semantics follows such verbs as shell, seed, core, bone, etc. I got
> curious as to how "top and tail" is generally interpreted.
>
> Of course, there are two classes of definitions--nouns and verbs. The
> reason I am saying that there are two classes is because the two sets
> are actually disconnected.
>
> My initial thought was that the expression applies to carrots and
> parsnips. But the most common use is apparently with green beans (who
> knew!).

I've used it that way since I've been doing it, for decades.  I used the conjoined verb phrase only when the object is green beans (string beans in my native dialect) or sometimes pea pods (sugar snap peas or Chinese pea pods), even though in the latter case I don't strictly top and tail the pea pods; I top and string them.

LH

> So fennel comes as a very distance extension.
>
> Bing/Encarta leads the way:
>
>> top-and-tail
>> TRANSITIVE VERB
>> 1. U.K. cooking remove top and bottom of something: to remove the less
>> edible ends of a fruit or vegetable, e.g. a green bean or black currant
>> 2. U.K. publishing inspect top and bottom of proofs: to inspect the
>> first and last few lines of page proofs to ensure that the pages are
>> breaking correctly
>> 3. U.K. sleep two in same bed: to put two people, especially children,
>> to sleep in the same bed with their heads at opposite ends of it (
>> informal )
>> 4. wash baby's face and bottom: to wash a baby's face and diaper areas
>> instead of giving it a full bath
>
> Two  comments about this: The UK connection is not surprising and #3
> matches a noun (adverb?) in UD that I initially dismissed as fake or
> obscure (I was wrong). ##1 and 4 show up almost verbatim in Collins
> ("diaper areas" is replace with appropriately British "bottom").
>
> Cambridge only has #1:
>
>> to cut off the hard parts at each end of a fruit or vegetable when you
>> prepare it for cooking
>
>
> Rosetta Code (sort of a Wiki for programmers) has an exercise named
> "Strip whitespace from a string/Top and tail". This appears to be
> derived from #1 and is not limited to string manipulation. Media
> Composer, Avid and Final Cut Pro have a tool with the same name that
> trims the front and tail end of videos (Final Cut Pro stole the idea
> from the other two).
>
> Amazon carries Top-and-Tail Professional Dog Wipes--presumably for
> wiping drool and rear encrustation. Presumably, this one is derived from #4.
>
> Per Wiki, a top-and-tail train is a monster with locomotives at both ends.
>
> There are a few other odds and ends, including a ridiculous Yahoo
> Answers post (confusing top-and-tail for top-and-tails).
>
>    VS-)
>
> PS: I have no access to OED through the BPL (Boston Public Library)
> right now for some unknown reason. I'm assuming the problem is with the
> BPL interface.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org