ort n

 

ort n  Pronc-sp oughtchiefly NEng  A leftover (esp of food), scrap; refuse, offal, trash.1828 (1970) Webster Amer. Dict. , Ort. . . A fragment; refuse.  1900 Day Up in ME 102, He got the orts of the fish we caught.  1909 DN 3.414 nME, Orts. . . The leavings of cattle in their manger.  1914 DN 4.77 ME, nNH, Orts. . . Guts of a fish. Entrails of animals.  1927 AmSp 3.139 ME coast, “Orts,” . . is archaic for refuse.  1941 LANE Map 346 (Rubbish), [Orts is recorded from 33 infs, esp nNEng, usually either in the sense “leavings from the table, garbage” or “scraps of hay left by cattle (or by sheep . . ).” One inf applies the word to scraps of paper, and one says it also means “manure.”]  1947 Hench Coll. , [He] has friends or relatives in Northeastern Penna. and in spots eastward to the Hudson River. He hears them say: “Take this ought and throw it out.” “Put these peelings in the ought can.”  1950 Moore Candlemas Bay 200 ME, “Take the orts out to the hens, Neal,” Jen said. . . He picked up the refuse dish and started for the barn.  1959 VT Hist. 27.151, Orts. . . Coarse hay or straw butts which the cattle do not eat. Common.  1966–70 DARE (Qu. H71, . . The last piece of food left on a plate) Inf ME1, Orts—table scraps; TX1, Leavings, ort; TX35, Ort [ɝt]; VA66, Ort; (Qu. F24, The container for kitchen parings and scraps—inside the kitchen) Inf MA40, Orts bag—old-fashioned.  1966 DARE FW Addit ME15, Orts—word always(?) used for garbage near Friendship and Long Island, Maine.  1973 Allen LAUM 1.198 MN (as of c1950), One Minnesota respondent [to a written checklist], of Scottish and Canadian parentage, checked ort pail, which in the eastern atlas study appeared only in Essex county, Massachusetts.  1986 Pederson LAGS Concordance (Comprehensive term for edible “insides” of a pig or calf) 1 inf, cAL, Orts and offal—words I’ve learned; 1 inf, ceTX, Orts—all edible organs collectively.