I eat humble pie, but what is another word for it?
To be humiliated is to eat humble pie.The drop in social status is similar to having to eat crow.We have a pretty good idea of the origin of both of them.It may surprise you to know that it wasn't always a metaphor.It was very clear.What does it have to do with?The guts of a deer!
If you were forced to eat the deer's entrails, it would be a humiliation.It would be today, but there was a time when the eating of organ meats or offal was more common than it is today.
In the past, removing the organs from a deer and cooking them to eat was a common practice.Yes, with an N.The word loin was derived from Latin lumbulus meaning a little loin.This is where we get the word from.As early as the 1400's, the numbles were eaten.venison was served to the more wealthy household to which he sold the deer, while the numbles were reserved for the huntsmen and his companions.Some historians think so.Not every person agrees.
The N was dropped at some point.The word numble became umble because people heard someone say "a numbles" and thought they were saying "an umbles."It was possible to bake them into a pie.That is a pie.It isn't farfetched at all.According to Samuel Pepys, a well-to-do and upwardly mobile city dweller who dined with such notables as Sir William Penn, an umble pie was quite good.The diary of Samuel Pepys, which he began on January 1, 1660, records the everyday life of a seventeenth-century London man who was engaged in business and who came in contact with all sorts of people.Scenes of everyday life are described, as well as the Great London Fire.Although the diary is lighthearted and amusing, it is considered an "inadvertent masterpiece" and the greatest diarist in the English language.Its value as an historical document is huge.tipClass:footnote_tooltip, effect: 'fade'.
In Maid Marian and Crochet Castle, Numble pie is mentioned.Little John came before a melancholy young man upon a horse and told Robin Hood about him, who told his man to fetch the youngman back to dine with them.
After fretting over the loss of his valise full of treasures and fear for his safety, Friar Tuck lost his appetites during a feast.
All the pasties and flasks before him could not give him assurance.The knight's appearance gave him enough courage to destroy a cygnet and a numble-pie, which he took with the contents of two flasks of canary sack.
The spelling N was already out of use when Peacock used it in 1822, having been replaced with umble and then humble.According to the New Book of Word Histories, humble pie was recorded from before 1642, but then was not seen for a while, with umble pie being common.The revival of humility was attributed to Americans, although this is not substantiated.
The spelling was more appropriate to Robin Hood.The basic timeline has nombles passing into English as numbles by the 1300's, which was followed by umbles by 1400 and humbles by 1500.This, even though they claim that umble pie was the more common name for the pie in the 1600's, so don't quote me on that timeline, or I might have to eat crow!
Robin Hood and his men ate their food and did not think it was offensive.It was dainty.It is difficult to say if the equating of umble pie to low class was responsible for the pun, but it is likely that the higher class ate the actual deer meat.It might be seen as belittling and humiliating for someone to have to eat pie.
It's easy to see how humble umble became.The letter H is dropped from the beginning of words by the British.It wouldn't sound right to many English people.It is easy to equate the umble with the completely different word humble, meaning modest, not proud, of low rank or status, etc.The humiliation of eating umble pie made it a cliché to eat humble pie.
The most famous literary reference to humble pie is in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, which was first published in 1850.The speaker is speaking of humility.To show the pronunciation, Dickens spells it without the H.
I knew what umbleness did when I was a young boy.I had an appetite and ate pie.