Lagniappe

The terrors of the calabozo, with its chains and whips and branding irons, were condensed into the French tri-syllabic calaboose; while the pleasant institution of ñapa—the petty gratuity added, by the retailer, to anything bought—grew the pleasanter, drawn out into [the] Gallicized lagniappe [emphasis added].Lagniappe is derived from the South American Spanish phrase la yapa or ñapa (referring to a free extra item, usually a very cheap one).

The word is used in the Gulf Coast region of the United States and in other places with historic links to French Creole culture, such as in Trinidad and Tobago.

The concept is practiced in many more places however, such as the Spanish-speaking world, Southeast Asia, North Africa, rural France, Australia, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

We discovered it at the head of a column of odds and ends in the Picayune, the first day; heard twenty people use it the second; inquired what it meant the third; adopted it and got facility in swinging it the fourth.

When a child or a servant buys something in a shop—or even the mayor or the governor, for aught I know—he finishes the operation by saying—"Give me something for lagniappe."

When the beau perceives that he is stacking his compliments a trifle too high, and sees by the young lady's countenance that the edifice would have been better with the top compliment left off, he puts his "I beg pardon—no harm intended," into the briefer form of "Oh, that's for lagniappe.