chopped liver
/ˈt͡ʃɑpt ˌlɪvɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.63 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A Jewish pâté-like food, usually spread on bread, made by mincing beef or chicken liver and onions which have been broiled or fried in schmaltz (“chicken fat”) together with hard-boiled eggs.
Uncountable
noun
A person or object not worthy of being noticed; someone or something insignificant.
Humorous; Informal; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The French say they are chopped liver experts. But you will decide whether Mrs. Weinberg, her mother, her mother's mother and her mother's mother's mother knew the secret of real chopped liver—long before the French did."
- "The traditional meal is a fine example of how to get the most from a chicken: the chicken, which is also the main course, produces the liver and the soup as well as the chicken fat which is essential to the flavor of the matzoh balls, the chopped liver and the grated radish."
- "Despite the widespread performance and increasing popularity of the contemporary American bar mitzvah, exceedingly little serious secular study has been devoted to this uniquely tenacious ritual. Perhaps this lack of scholarly attention reflects the negative stereotypes of glitz and chopped liver center pieces, or the sense that this is, after all, a religious event "best left" to rabbis and Jewish educators."
- "I'm leaning against a General Electric fridge of such purring, juddering, aerodynamic aspect that were I to unsuck the rubber-flanged door and climb inside, settle myself comfortably in amongst the bowls of chopped liver, the packets of frankfurters, the crinkly heads of lettuce, it might well lift off for the Forbidden Planet."
- "We had a run on chopped liver that morning, which was one of our biggest sellers. It was delicious, yes—more on that later—but people responded to the Yiddish saying that Uncle Murray had put in English next to the chopped liver platter listing on the menu, as he did with most of the entrées: Gehakteh leber iz besser vi gehakteh truris: Chopped liver is better than miserable troubles."
- "You've been nice enough, but what am I, chopped liver or something?"
Etymology
Calque of Yiddish געהאַקטע לעבער (gehakte leber), from געהאַקטע (gehakte, “chopped”) (compare the verb האַקן (hakn, “to chop”)) + לעבער (leber, “liver”). According to the Hungarian-American lexicographer and linguist Sol Steinmetz (1930–2010), sense 2 (“person or object not worthy of being noticed”) may be from the fact that chopped liver is served as an appetizer or side dish rather than as a main dish.
Word Breakdown
- Root: *leyp-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈt͡ʃɑpt ˌlɪvɚ/
- British English: /ˈt͡ʃɒpt ˌlɪvə/
Usage
Phrases
chopped-liver
what am I, chopped liver