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by Running, Fall Up on December 17th, 2005

Running, Fall Up

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How did "a piece of cake" come to mean a very easy task?

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  • by Alatea on December 22nd, 2005

    Alatea

    It’s meaning came from the early Egyptians where cake was a synonym for something good or easy. Mummies were often interred with a doggie bag of cakes and ale, and "cakes and ale" is still common shorthand for "the good life" in Britain.

    Attributed to the ancient Greeks a "cake" in those times was made with honey. Aristotle is quoted in the "The Knights": "if you surpass him in impudence, then we take the cake".

    Writer Ogden Nash, born in Rye, New York wrote the line (piece of cake) in 'Primrose Path' (1936). Nash could have borrowed it from the French - c'est du gateau. Many phrase origins arrived with immigrants.
    "Cake-walk" and "Easy as pie" soon followed.

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