Why is something easy a "piece of cake"? | | Tracing "piece of cake" back to its origins isn't so simple. Its history winds through poetry and wartime slang before becoming the go-to phrase for effortless tasks. | |  | Bennett Kleinman |
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| |  | | D etermining the origins of certain phrases is a piece of cake. But in terms of the idiom "piece of cake" itself, this goal is far from simple. We commonly use this phrase to describe any task that can be accomplished with ease. But you still may find yourself wondering why cake is the default dessert in this case, rather than a gooey brownie or a big bowl of pudding. Before we get sidetracked talking about sweet treats, let's go back to the 1930s and discuss how the saying was first coined.
The Oxford English Dictionary notes the idiom originated in print in the 1936 edition of Primrose Path, a collection of poetry by Ogden Nash: "Her picture's in the papers now, And life's a piece of cake." Oddly, earlier editions of the poem featured the line "And everything is jake" instead — "jake" being a slang term meaning "satisfactory." While the rhyming swap preserved the poetry of the line, the meaning of "piece of cake" implied "ease" from the beginning, and it was not synonymous with "satisfactory."
Shortly after Nash introduced the phrase, it was popularized by members of Britain's Royal Air Force to describe an easy mission. Why they chose this phrase in particular is a bit of a mystery — maybe they read Nash's poem, or perhaps they were inspired by "easy as pie," a similar dessert-themed idiom dating to the 1890s. The cake idiom became indelibly connected with the RAF in short order, appearing in a 1942 article from the popular Life magazine about British pilots finding targets with ease. Many queries around linguistic message boards (they exist!) assume the idiom originated within the RAF, giving the pilots credit for the coinage. However, the American poet's wording predated the military usage. |
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Emoji Decoded | |  | | Takeout Box | | | Meaning: Depicts a Chinese food takeout container, typically shown as a white box with red graphics.
Evolution: When it was added in 2017 as part of Unicode 10.0, this emoji became associated with food delivery and takeout services.
Usage: [Text to roommate:] Too tired to cook tonight, want to split some 🥡? |
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| | Takeout Box | | | Meaning: Depicts a Chinese food takeout container, typically shown as a white box with red graphics.
Evolution: When it was added in 2017 as part of Unicode 10.0, this emoji became associated with food delivery and takeout services.
Usage: [Text to roommate:] Too tired to cook tonight, want to split some 🥡? |
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Have you read? | |  | | Lincoln in the Bardo | | By George Saunders | | This haunting, strange, and brilliant novel from George Saunders was the best book I read last year, and unlike anything I've read before. It blends historical accounts and fictional narratives in a truly unique way. It explores Abraham Lincoln's experience in the days after the death of his son Willie, though to describe this as simply a book about grief would be selling it short. | | | | Meg Neal, Deputy Managing Editor | | | | We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. |
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| | Lincoln in the Bardo | | By George Saunders | | This haunting, strange, and brilliant novel from George Saunders was the best book I read last year, and unlike anything I've read before. It blends historical accounts and fictional narratives in a truly unique way. It explores Abraham Lincoln's experience in the days after the death of his son Willie, though to describe this as simply a book about grief would be selling it short. | | | | Meg Neal, Deputy Managing Editor | | | | We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. |
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You might also like | |  | | | | 6 Words That Were Created Through Errors | | Some of the most notorious spelling errors actually changed the English language. Language adapts to how people use it, so some typos and misusages have managed to worm their way into the common lexicon. |
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