Caspar Milquetoast
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Caspar Milquetoast was a comic strip character created by Harold Webster in 1924 for his comic strip The Timid Soul, published in the New York World. From this character the term "milquetoast" has come to mean "weak and ineffectual." Webster continued to produce the comic strip until his death in 1952, after which his assistant Herb Roth carried it on for another year. The name is a deliberate misspelling of the name of a bland and fairly inoffensive food, milk toast.
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History
Meanings
This can also refer to someone who believes in "turning the other cheek", that revenge is wong, or letting others win at his/her expense. This can lead to doormatism, meaning a person who gets treated as a doormat for one to wipe his or her dirty shoes on and get stepped on.
See also
Further reading
- H. T. Webster, Introduction by Ring Lardner, The Timid Soul, Simon and Schuster (1931)
- The Best of H. T. Webster: A Memorial Collection, Simon and Schuster (1953), hardcover, 254 pages.