Sightings of “Milksop” in the Wild

In an earlier ODD post, “Stephen King Loves ‘Milksop,’” I shared that King used “milksop” in The Shining (spotted there by my publisher, Alanna Rusnak). Here’s the passage, where Jack Torrance lashes out at his wife Wendy with these words.:

“All you ever think about is ways to drag me down. You’re just like my mother, you milksop bitch!”

Here, “milksop” is a nasty putdown, the product of a haunting, one with life and death consequences.

Then, a few days ago, my friend and fellow writer Melissa Kuipers sighted this use of “milksop” while reading to her children. It’s in E. Nesbit’s The Story of the Treasure Seekers:

“H.O. wanted to come out and jump about to warm himself. But we told him he must learn to be a Spartan boy, and that he ought to be very thankful he hadn’t got a beastly fox eating his inside all the time. H.O. is our little brother, and we are not going to let it be our fault if he grows up to be a milksop.”

Apparently, little brothers just need to “suck it up, buttercup.” What’s a little frostbite compared to growing up to be all milksoppy? This is the Spartan way.

Photo by Vladan Raznatovic on Unsplash

With my novel Milksop being published on May 23, these sightings of “milksop” in the wilds of writing got me wondering where other members of this species might be found hiding in the literary woods. With a quick search, here’s what I found:

“And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow,
Long kept in Brittany at our mother’s cost,
A milksop, one that never in his life
Felt so much cold as overshoes in snow?”

In these lines from Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (Act V, Scene iii), Richard is rousing his soldiers for battle by mocking his enemy Richmond. Conclusion: “Milksop” can be weaponized to get people’s blood boiling.

“You are a milksop...by the living God I will dissolve the House.”

This is a statement reputedly made by Oliver Cromwell to Charles Fleetwood, as recorded by Ferdinand Mount. Conclusion: calling your political adversary a “milksop” provides cover for taking divinely sanctioned political action.

“That milksop of a creature pretend to be worthy of such a woman as Mrs. Pendennis[? W]here will impudence stop next!”

William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. Conclusion: milksoppiness disqualifies a man for courtship and marriage. No milksop should ever be allowed to get the girl.

“There has got abroad a notion, somehow, that if you become a Christian, you must sink your manliness and turn milksop.”

This is a statement by Charles Spurgeon on “Masculinity.” Conclusion: milksoppiness is antithetical to “muscular Christianity.” Echoes here of Jesus and John Wayne? See Kristin Du Mez.

My ambition in publishing Milksop is to fully resuscitate this marvelous word. More than that, my novel aims to redeem “milksop” and all those poor souls around the world who’ve been wrongly belittled by being labelled with the term.

“Milksop,” of course, is an old-fashioned word, dated even, so my little novel has a big challenge ahead of it. Here is a graph of milksop’s use through the centuries.

Notice a couple of things. First, while the nineteenth century was very milksoppy, the twentieth was a bad one: that explains two world wars, etc. More milksoppiness = more world peace. Second, notice the slight uptick around 2019—I believe that’s entirely due to the attacks of Donald Trump and Russian bots on Joe Biden and American democracy ahead of the 2020 election. (“Democracy is for sissies and milksop losers.” I’m sure Trump said that in a Truth Social post.)

I firmly believe that on May 23 when millions of people begin reading Milksop, they won’t be able to stop talking about it. “Milksop” will be on everyone’s lips and will fill everyone’s social media feeds. As a result, the line on the graph will shoot vertically faster than a tech bro’s rocket. Now, whether it will be from people using “milksop” as a term of endearment or an epithet of abuse remains to be seen. Stay tuned. Either way, I predict that “milksop” will be the word of the year for 2026.

Have you made other sightings of “milksop” in the literary wilds? Please let me know! And stay tuned for more posts, including how you can pre-order Milksop on April 23.

As always, if the spirit moves you, please share your thoughts and this post. It’s all free all the time.