Chuck and All Its Cousins

Chuck is my word of the week. It might have an identity crisis though.

Chuck Is a Troublemaker

The vocabulary war in our family is a big deal. There are many words in the argument bowl, but the one that surfaces the most is ‘chuck’.

My dad uses it.

My mom hates it.

Recently my dad found it in the Merriam-Webster dictionary to prove that it was indeed a ‘real’ word. My mom couldn’t care less. She has decided that ‘chuck’ is slang and therefore not worthy of use in the English language. “We must say throw because it’s proper English,” she would say.

Old Man Chuck

The word itself can be traced as far back as the 1500’s. It’s possibly from an old French word chuquer which means ‘to knock’.

Will The Real Chuck Please Stand Up?

Sneaky little me decided to look for myself, and was shocked to see that chuck was not alone in this world. It had cousins. The word chuck has several definitions. It will depend on your career or your global location. Let me introduce you to 9 of them.

Chuck the handyman.

· A clamping device that holds a workpiece in a lathe or a drill to prevent it from moving.

Chuck the foodie. · A chuck or cut of beef from the neck across the shoulder blades, including at least the first 3 ribs of meat. Also known as a chuck steak. · Meat cuts like pork shoulders, brisket, or flank.

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