rump

The emerging consensus over at Donkeylicious seems to be that the pull of metaphorical usages like 'Rump Parliament' or 'Republican rump' stems from the fact that the rump is the least desirable meat of an animal.

Probably so. Which means that yet another fact learned from Heinlein has turned out not to be true.

I got up. Rufo was dressed in our Merry Men clothes and wearing sword, so I dressed the same way and buckled on mine. My valettes were not in sight, nor my borrowed finery. I stumbled after Rufo into the great dining hall. There was Star, dressed to travel, and looking grim. The fancy furnishings of the night before were gone; it was as bleak as an abandoned barn. A bare table was all, an on it a joint of meat, cold in congealed grease and a knife beside it.

I looked at it without relish. "What's that?"

"Your breakfast, if you want it. But I shall not stay under this roof and eat cold shoulder." It was a tone, a manner, I had never heard from her.

Rufo touched my sleeve. "Boss. Let's get out of here. Now."

Source: Glory Road, Robert A. Heinlein, p. 111