The Phrase Finder explains that the longer version “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” makes more sense and that the often quoted “proof is in the pudding” makes no sense. The meaning is that “To fully test something you need to experience it yourself.” The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations dates it to the 14th century. The first written example located was dated 1605 and was “All the proof of a pudding is in the eating.” It is speculated that “pudding” in the original usage was actually what we would call sausage today.
Category Archives: Expressions
If Wishes Were Horses… and Merry Christmas
This was one of my grandmother’s favorite sayings:
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
According to wikipedia, it comes from a 16th century nursery rhyme and “is usually used to suggest that it is useless to wish and that better results will be achieved through action. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20004.” Who knew there was a Roud Folk Song Index?
An early version was recorded in Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, printed in 1605. “The modern rhyme was probably the combination of two of many versions and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s.”
Here’s the whole rhyme:
If wishes were horses,
Beggars would ride.
If turnips were watches,
I’d wear one by my side,:
If Ifs and Ands were pots and pans,
There’d be no work for tinkers’ hands.
There are lots of these sorts of phrases:
If ‘if’ was a skiff we would all take a boat ride.
If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had any eggs.
If a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his ass a-hoppin’.
I think people enjoy making them up. I’m reminded of one that goes like this:
If Ands and Buts were fruits and nuts
We’d all have a Merry Christmas.
Some versions use “candy and nuts” or “ifs and buts.” I saw it attributed by stackexchange and Phrase Finder bulletin board to Don Meredith (football player and commentator.)
Since the phrase has been used popularly of late – by John Boehner and Sheldon Cooper for example – a google search for the origin is rather overwhelmed by pop references. I’d rather do something else today.
So – Don Meredith- you get the credit!
Merry Christmas.
Measure Twice, Cut Once
This phrase means “think before you act.”
While the expression measure twice, cut once is an English proverb, the Russian proverb is measure seven times, cut once. But in the book “A Collection of Gaelic Proverbs and Familiar Phrases Based On MacIntosh’s Collection” (1785), it states that the idiom is based on the older Gaelic expression: Better measure short of seven, than spoil all at once. For those who familiar with kilts, a kilt for a grown man takes seven yards and so it’s easy to see why it would be important to measure the yardage twice lest an unfortunate situation arise.
Even earlier, Benvenuto Cellini wrote in 1558…
we must mark seven times and cut once,
which hardly seems like instructions to Scottish tailors.
bookbrowse.com has a reference from John Florio in Second Frutes (1591), Alwaies measure manie, before you cut anie, or measure many times.
Whichever source you prefer, clearly in modern times we are becoming impatient, willing to only measure twice.
Pipe Dreams
A search for the origin of this expression, which means “…a fantastic hope or plan that is generally regarded as nearly impossible to achieve…” led me to todayIfoundout.com, a web site I don’t recall using as a reference previously. The site explains that the first written reference was in the Chicago Daily Tribune in an 1890 story about aerial navigation. “It has been regarded as a pipe-dream for a good many years.” The article explained that “…the true origin of the phrase… (is) a reference to the dreams experienced when smoking opium.”
Keep a Weather Eye Out
I was uncertain if the “weather” in this phrase referred to storms or to the wise old goat that sheep cluster around.
It refers to storms – the origin is nautical, but the definition seems to be changing.
A wiktionary discussion says the phrase is “unanimously” used to mean to watch something intently since it may cause trouble. But the commenter claims the original nautical meaning is to keep half an eye on something while engaged in other tasks.
A number of definition sources are cited that are ambiguous – simply saying to be on guard or alert.
The commenter tries to prove his case by logic – hardly conclusive when it comes to phrases!
dictionary.com includes one dated citation, though it may not be the earliest:
“Only I feel it my duty to say this to you—keep your weather-eye open.”
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, No. 411, January 1850
At least I know it’s not a goat.
Dry Behind the Ears
This expression is often preceded with “not even,” and it originated in describing a new born farm animal. According to Charles Earle Funk in “A Hog on Ice & Other Curious expressions it is used to describe someone who is “As innocent and unsophisticated as a babe.” That would be an animal that is still new enough to have moisture in the depression behind the ears or a person who is incredibly naïve.