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 #2 (permalink) Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:53 am Why is the word "cake" used in the idiom "a piece of cake? |
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Hi,
'Piece of cake' is the conventional idiom and since it is idiomatic, it's not possible to exp[alin it logically.
Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple |
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Alan
Co-founder
Joined: 27 Sep 2003
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Location: UK
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| #3 (permalink) Thu Feb 22, 2007 13:24 pm Why is the word "cake" used in the idiom "a piece of cake? |
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| Deorra wrote: |
| Why not ice cream or pie? |
Oh, but you can say 'easy as pie', too.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/41/messages/245.html
Some more assumptions about the origins and meanings of these expressions:
| Quote: |
| cake walk, piece of cake/takes the cake - easy task/wins (the prize) - from the tradition of giving cakes as prizes in rural competitions. Brewer (1870) tells of the tradition in USA slavery states when slaves or free descendents would walk in a procession in pairs around a cake at a social gathering or party, the most graceful pair being awarded the cake as a prize. This also gave us the expression 'cake walk' and 'a piece of cake' both meaning a job or contest that's very easy to achieve or win, and the variation 'takes the biscuit', meaning to win (often ironically, to be the worst). |
http://www.businessballs.com/clichesorigins.htm |
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Conchita
Language Coach
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Location: Madrid, Spain
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