The thrive bit, like the force piece, is what Mr. Manners gets to eat after a meal has ended. In other words, the thrive bit and the force piece are the last tidbit of food left on the table, the food that only the greediest guest would deprive the mythical Mr. Manners of. This untouched piece of dinner is an important part of gastronomic etiquette because it attests to the host having provided enough food to ensure that the guests will “thrive.” The irony is that the host may not, in fact, have provided enough food, but the still-hungry guests dare not satisfy themselves with the last piece that sits, enticingly before them. The word thrive is first recorded in the thirteenth century, but since it derives from an Old Norse word, it must have been in use since the ninth or tenth century when the Vikings sailed to England to pillage and conquer its defenceless villagers. The Old Norse word that is the source of thrive was thrifask, meaning to grasp for oneself, the assumption being that grabbing and seizing are synonymous with thriving. The word thrift, which developed from the same source as thrive, acquired its sense of frugality in the sixteenth century as the emerging merchant class learned that penny-pinching helped a business thrive. The force in force piece derives from a Latin source, fortis, meaning strong. The word force was likely applied to the last tidbit of the meal because many hosts, satisfied that their bounty was proven by the temporary presence of a thrive bit, would take this last morsel and force it upon some lucky dinner guest, who had to accept it after ritually protesting to be too full to eat another bite.