#1061 Eentsy Bitsy 2

The other day I did a commentary about the Little People wanting to have the word midget banned by the FCC. They Compared the M-word to the N-word.
And it got me thinking about small words. Especially because I had recently done a crossword puzzle and the answer to the clue was eensy. That’s e-e-n-s-y-. Now when I was growing up, it was always eentsy with a T. Or eentsy-weentsy, both with a T. My thesaurus suggester on my Word program fails to mention eensy either way, but does offer as a synonym for “midget” the word teensy.
It also offers the variation teensy-weensy and teeny-weeny. A phrase I’m guessing the little people would object to even more.
Then there’s the banana bana bo bana crowd who have to have everything with a B. They favor eentsy beentsy. Which sounds an awful like some kind of soup creation, using really small beans, or lentils perhaps. Eentsy beantsy.
Or perhaps it’s a carryover from itsy bitsy. Of the spider and the waterspout legend. Depending on your daycare or nursery school, you could have ended up with spiders that were eensy-weensy, eentsy- beentsy, or itsy bitsy. Interestingly, perhaps because a spider image calls for an “S”, you never hear of an itty-bitty spider.
And although we have eentsy-beentsy and eenstsy-weentsy we don’t have a comparable itsy-bitsy and itsy-witsy.
And what is an itty bitty anyhow? Sounds like some kind of slam against a Little-wittle old person—that old bitty, that old itty bitty.
So what I’m saying is, if we have to start redefining which words we use for “small” we could be opening up a can of worms here.
By the way, vivid images aside, have you ever seen a can of worms? Itsy bitsy or otherwise? How do worms survive the boiling hot canning process? And if they do, do fish think a canned worm is every bit as flavorful as the fresh-picked variety?
That’s just one of those little itty bitty thoughts that go worming piggley-wiggley through my brain.
America, ya gotta love it.