the.com/chopsticks
Two sticks that turned eating into a fine motor exam you never studied for.
means A pair of slender sticks, usually of wood, bamboo, or metal, held in one hand and used to pick up and eat food.
from Likely a loan-translation into English of the Chinese term meaning 'quick ones' or 'nimble boys,' reflecting pidgin English's habit of borrowing 'chop' (as in 'chop chop') to mean fast. The Chinese word itself, kuàizi, carries that same sense of speed. So the English name is really a secondhand nickname — a translation of a nickname — for an implement whose actual history in China stretches back thousands of years, long before anyone was in a hurry to name it.
- origin
- China, over 3000 years ago, for cooking not eating
- etiquette rule
- never stick upright in rice, mimics funeral incense
- material math
- disposable ones kill roughly 20 million trees yearly
- length clue
- chinese ones longer, for reaching shared dishes