Comments on: Spilling the Beans on the Origins of Food Idioms

By: Holiday Gift Guide: New Children's Books About Food | Food & Think

Holiday Gift Guide: New Children's Books About Food | Food & Think — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:26:05 +0000

[...] Other Mealtime Hazards, by Serge Bloch (Sterling). Award-winning illustrator Serge Bloch plays with food idioms. His creative combination of photography and cartoon sketches will make young readers [...]

By: 33 Things: This Week’s Amusing and Intriguing Links — Evangelical Outpost

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 07:02:35 +0000

[...] injustice.’”27. The Zombie Apocalypse: not quite how you pictured it.28. The Smithsonian Spills the Beans About Food Idioms. “The origins of some food idioms are a piece of cake to figure out; just [...]

By: A concise history of cliches | Rendition of fiction by R.M. Reynolds

A concise history of cliches | Rendition of fiction by R.M. Reynolds — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 01:27:05 +0000

[...] concise history of cliches Posted on September 18, 2010 by R.M. Reynolds Here’s a great article about the history of hackneyed sayings, care of The Smithsonian’s blog. If a soldier wasn’t [...]

By: Maria Elena

Maria Elena — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 03:46:16 +0000

I am sorry Jimmy Liddar but your comment in history is wrong: ‘If there is no bread, let them eat cake” … were the actual words from Queen Marie Antoinette of France and not the words of an old English Queen.. this the Queen replied when told there was no bread for the people of France because the country was so broke…

By: The Nut

The Nut — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:56:59 +0000

I’m sorry, but this article is half-baked stuff. The ‘apple of my eye’ is a biblical reference, and is a metaphor —for an apple’s beauty, sweetness, and, yes, its crispness. Spilling the beans is a metaphor (ahem, again) —for the unpredictable spill from a sack of beans.

Where these “researches” wound up with the article’s conclusions is only a testament to credulity. The first flaw in these, even the Shakespeare attributions, is the lack of attention to other languages, which themselves fill the English language with metaphors. The world is not an English-language vision, alas alack. Try old French and even Occitan for many many sources of a metaphor, and only then tie together the soundings of the words.

It is the concept that is the root of a meaning.

By: Fun food « GrinningBookfairy Blog

Fun food « GrinningBookfairy Blog — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:51:49 +0000

[...] is one about english phrases and one about international [...]

By: “Say” « Hour of Gold

“Say” « Hour of Gold — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 04:38:07 +0000

[...] Jump to Comments Michelle passed on an excellent piece of miscellany the other day: “Spilling the Beans on the Origins of Food Idioms,” a Smithsonian article on the story behind phrases like “apple of my eye” and [...]

By: Do Food Expressions Drive You ‘Bananas’? (Smithsonian) « Bowdoin Daily Sun

Do Food Expressions Drive You ‘Bananas’? (Smithsonian) « Bowdoin Daily Sun — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 10:42:11 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Morning Briefing: 10 September 2010 « ACG|Blog

Morning Briefing: 10 September 2010 « ACG|Blog — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:28:18 +0000

[...] September 10, 2010 by Alex Guillén Spilling the beans on the origins of food idioms [via Smithsonian Magazine] [...]

By: Jimmy Liddar

Jimmy Liddar — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:23:36 +0000

I believe the following is completely wrong:
Piece of cake: According to The Word Detective, this may be related to the expressions “takes the cake” and “cakewalk” which both probably derive from the 19th-century African-American competitions that awarded a cake to the couple who strutted most gracefully and stylishly around it.

A piece of Cake refers to an old english queen quoting, if there is no bread, let them eat cake – referring to cake as in crumbs from cooking bread. A piece of cake would then refer to a simple task – as simple as a it would be to acquire/make a bread crumb

By: daily notes: september 8, 2010 « post-rock paper scissors

daily notes: september 8, 2010 « post-rock paper scissors — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:24:44 +0000

[...] read: 5 strangest things evolution left in your body, spilling the beans, and sam i [...]

By: laura

laura — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 23:18:12 +0000

Clotilde Dusoulier at Chocolate and Zucchini (http://chocolateandzucchini.com/) has blogged about French food idioms, in case you’re interested …

By: Flavorwire » What’s on at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds In Our Office

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:03:38 +0000

[...] at Flavorpill, we learned where the phrase “spilling the beans” comes from. We decided that Disney should never try to be cool. We wanted to visit Tokyo [...]

By: John@ Vancouver Washington

John@ Vancouver Washington — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:06:00 +0000

I’ve been amazed at how durable some of these idioms are, such as “spilling the beans” going back to the days of the Greeks!

By: Inviting Writing: College Food | Food & Think

Inviting Writing: College Food | Food & Think — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:50:25 +0000

[...] my freshman year of college began, and I decided to stick with it. But while young adulthood may be idiomatically called one’s “salad days,” I didn’t eat much in the way of leafy greenery that year. “Carbs and sugar days” [...]