[Robert DeLong]

I was introduced to lagniappe by my wife who has lived most of her entire life in the New Orleans area. It a Cajun (Louisiana French) word. I still have to use the pronunciation 'lan yap' to look up the correct spelling of the darn word.

But yes, I fell in love with the word when I first heard it.

[Pelham]

” It a Cajun (Louisiana French) word.”

It’s a French word but not because of the Cajuns. Cajuns were Jean-come-latelys to Louisiana, after the Brits booted them out of Acadia at the end of the French and Indian War (Seven Years War).

The original French settlers of New Orleans and Louisiana are called French Creoles. Most people are familiar with Cajuns and assume that that is where the French influence comes from but it’s not so, they just added to the gumbo that is Louisiana. There’s also the group of mixed race folks that were called Louisiana Creoles as opposed to French Creoles.

My own ancestry hails back to a soldier who was with Bienville when he founded New Orleans circa 1720. There’s a family home a little south of NO in Plaquemines Parish. My grandmother, born in 1890, grew up there speaking French as her first language.