spare ribs

[nykkieberry]

Why are spare ribs called *spare* ribs?

[archbishop]

When a pig has been cured for bacon the ribs are then removed and become spare. Although nowadays when pigs are prepared the ribs are removed before curing and sent to various fast food companies for them to add there own flavourings.

[Quizmonster]

In the original old Germanic, the word was 'Ribbesper', but that somehow got its two parts transposed in English into 'spare rib'. The 'spare' part of that refers to the fact that pork ribs have their meat very closely trimmed to the bone. The word 'spare' here means the same as it does in the sentence: "He was a man of very spare build", meaning lean, even skinny.

As His Grace, the Archbishop, says, ribs nowadays may be treated as 'spare' in the sense of something 'extra', but the original sense was definitely 'lean'.