Iffit

I was looking through an image gallery recently, of foreign words that have no singular counterpart in the English language. As a developer, names are one of the most important axioms of any program, so it’s always fascinating to see entire concepts rolled up and packaged in a few scratches on a bit of paper. Which reminded me of my family’s own lexicon.

I’d guess almost all tribes have small shibboleths. Traits that are shared between members but not beyond. An odd nickname for a grandparent, or a humorous mispronunciation of a word that somehow overshadows it’s original form (flavicons Suk?). Cooking last night (not very well I might add), I remembered an old word my Mum had used for years.

Iffit /if·it/

First a definition, because hopefully that will shed some light. Iffit means a meal made from random ingredients, often left overs or things that are reaching their use by date. Sometimes the results are amazing meals that you’ll never taste again. Other times… let’s not repeat that experiment.

It’s a word that’s been used in my household for years. Like most words, it’s etymology is a bit hit-and-miss. I think it originally came from the logical contraction of If and It; as in, you can eat it if it works.

Anyway, it was just a humorous thought in my head as I was adding another ingredient to the pan last night.