I decided to share the story of one of my most favorite designs in our shop. Meet milquetoast!

Cute, right?

Yeah, super cute, but you might be scratching your head. What the heck is milquetoast?

Simply, a milquetoast is someone who is meek, timid, and easily intimidated. It’s such a strange word that I started wondering where it came from. “Toast” as in toast you eat?

Turns out, the word originates from the 1924 comic strip character Casper Milquetoast by H.T. Webster. He’s known as “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick.” His name “Milquetoast” is a deliberate misspelling of the food “milk toast,” a bland breakfast food made of toasted bread in warm milk. In other words, something bland and inoffensive. Much like a timid person.

So there you have it! Milquetoast is a fairly recent addition to the American English dictionary (it’s worth noting that it doesn’t usually appear in non-American English dictionaries). Celebrate the etymology of milquetoast with our awesome and adorable t-shirt and see how many of your friends are in on the joke!