Before leftovers were called leftovers they were called relics, and before they were called relics they were called relief. Historically, these words overlapped very little: relief appeared around the beginning of the fourteenth century and is last recorded, as a culinary term, in 1589; relic is first recorded in 1576 and became rare, as a culinary term, in the nineteenth century; leftovers was not used as a culinary term until late in the nineteenth century, 1891 to be precise. Of these three words, relief has the most straightforward origin: it derives ultimately from an Indo-European source—pronounced something like lengw—that meant to make something lighter. This Indo-European source became the Latin word levare, meaning to lift up, which became the Latin relevare, meaning to lift up again. The Latin relevare then became the French relever, also meaning to lift up again, which became the French word relief, meaning both leftovers (food you lift up again from the table) and assistance (you often have to lift up someone who needs assistance). The French relief—with both these senses—was borrowed by English, but, as mentioned, the leftovers sense was lost in the late sixteenth century. The word relic has a slightly more complex history. It too derives ultimately from an Indo-European word, one pronounced something like leikw and meaning to leave. This Indo-European word became the Latin linquere, meaning to abandon, which then became relinquere. The Latin verb relinquere then became the Latin noun reliquum, meaning something left behind, and it was this word that became the French relique. English adopted this French word as relic and first used it to refer to legendary chunks of Christian history such as the bones of St. George; the word then acquired, in the late sixteenth century, its sense of leftovers or food left behind at the table. Amazingly, the word eleven derives in part from the same Indo-European source as relic: eleven literally means one left over, this being a shortened way of saying ten and one left over.
The remnants of a meal, commonly referred to as leftovers, are a crucial aspect of culinary conservation that demands our attention. While it is wise to purchase and prepare a sufficient quantity of food to minimize the likelihood of leftovers, it is almost inevitable that some will remain. Hence, it is essential to adopt an approach to housekeeping that seeks to make the most of these leftovers by utilizing them in the most efficient and effective manner possible.