poor-boy
also po' boy sandwich
Origin of po' boy
phonetic spelling, spelled imitating New Orleans pronunciationpo' boy
po'boyWebster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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po'boy
or po' boy or po-boy
noun
A sandwich originating in New Orleans consisting of meat or seafood, such as roast beef or fried oysters, and often lettuce, tomatoes, and condiments, served on French bread.
Origin of po'boy
Probably from poor boy (perhaps in reference to the free sandwiches given to striking streetcar workers (considered “poor boys”) by the Martin Brothers Coffee Stand during a transit strike in New Orleans in 1929), or perhaps from folk-etymological alteration of French pourboire pourboire (said to have been used in New Orleans also in the sense “alms given to beggars,” and then applied in English to the sandwiches distributed by nuns as alms) ; see pourboire in Indo-European roots.THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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MLA Style
"Po\' boy." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/po-boy.
APA Style
Po\' boy. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/po-boy
Noun
(plural po' boys)
Origin
A shortened form of poor boy. The etymology is disputed.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"Po\' boy." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/po-boy.
APA Style
Po\' boy. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/po-boy
