h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When I was a kid, we were sent to school with crisps, a penny wafer and something to drink for our "leaf piece". Alternatively, we were given "leaf piece" money to buy our own.

Where did the phrase "leaf piece" come from?

Don't know about 'leaf' but the 'piece' bit is in use in parts of north UK. Your piece is your packed meal, usually taken to work. (piece of pie, maybe?)

I'm born and bred in Scotland but never heard the term "leaf piece" Perhaps it was just a term used in SWL world?
I have however heard of 'a piece' referring to a packed lunch of some sort..

A Scottish piece is nowadays used to describe a sandwich or slice of bread (eg cheese/ham/egg piece or piece'n'dup - a slice of bread used to soak up the gravy in your mince!) So as Rod said, a packed lunch, though pieces of pie were well beyond the means in most cases!

According to Mooother - a connoisseur of traditional Scottish cookery - a piece was originally the 'porage' that was poured into the lined sideboard drawer until it hardened and then cut up into 'pieces' which were then taken for lunch on the job.

Stumped on the leaf piece though. We had 'play pieces' which was the biscuit or sandwich you took for play-time at school and 'shivery bite' pieces which were the cheese rolls you got when you had braved the North Sea in May and returned to tell the tale, blue with incipient hypothermia!

Will consult the guru (Mooother) and see if she remembers a leaf piece (lief piece maybe? Lots of French terms survived Bonnie PC!).

Deakie, yes, of cours, pie was rather up-market. The porage drawer seems likely.
Porage - or porridge?

Rod, everyone in the normal world says porridge. That's how I'd spell it being born in the Scottish 70's. If you start talking traditional Scottish recipes, (or look on a box of Scott's oats)then porage seems to be the way that Great Great Granny Jean spelled it so no variations are considered!

Yep, I looked at my pakkitt of Scott's 'Old Fashioned' Porage Oats and 'tis as you say.

My grandfather was a miner in Fife. He always took a leaf-piece to work. I believe this happened in the Lothians too, another mining area. Is it short for "relief"?

Not short for relief, but "Leave Piece" - leave time being alternative expression for play time at school. Always spoken as leaf piece.

Hello Ross,

Welcome to h2g2. Swl is an active Researcher and will be pleased this thread is still drawing interest.

I have left you a message in your Personal Space, hopefully it will help you find you way around our site

lil x

I'm just pleased to hear a very plausible-sounding suggestion. Thanks Ross.