What’s milquetoast and how is used in Language?

"Milquetoast" is a word that may be used either as an adjective or a noun to describe a person who is quiet, unwilling to defend themselves, generally submissive, and willing to let others tell them what to do and guide the situation. It can also, however, be used to describe an organization or larger body which is thought to be behaving in an on-the-fence, spineless, unassertive, or wavering way. It is a pejorative. Some example sentences might be:
"Tom is such a milquetoast, he's thirty and still afraid of his mother."
"Ultimately the organization's milquetoast stance on the issue didn't impress the community."
Often the word is written in italics because of the French-inflected milque, rather than milk, although of course this isn't actually French for "milk." The word originally comes from a 1920s comic strip whose lead character, Caspar Milquetoast, was described as a "timid soul" by his creator, H.T. Webster. The name was deliberately intended to put in mind an image of toast soaked in milk, a common breakfast food for French children. Milk soaked in bread will naturally be pale, soft, easy to chew, not particularly hardy, and so on, all attributes we are supposed to imagine in a milquetoast.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/milquetoast-caspar-comic-webster

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