More than 884,996 people are infected, with at least 44,200 fatalities and still counting.
Unlike in 1918, the world is today a global village, which makes the pandemic more catastrophic.Īs I write, a virus that was detected in China in December 2019, barely four months ago, is affecting 203 countries and territories around the world and two international conveyances: the Diamond Princess Cruise ship harboured in Yokohama, Japan, and the Holland America’s MS Zaandam Cruise ship. But the world has changed fundamentally in the last century.
To eat a humble pie archive#
I think I have indigestion from all this dodgy food though.Įnjoy the weekly Q&As? Browse the growing archive on our blog – over 200 Q&As tackling the irks and quirks of the English language.Except perhaps the 1918 Spanish flu which lasted from January 1918 to December 1920, nothing has shaken the world like the coronavirus pandemic.
The AFL’s Adelaide Crows name clearly comes from the nickname. Q: Wait, isn’t a “crow eater” someone from South Australia?Ī: Yes, it is a nickname that dates from the 1880s, however it is completely unrelated to the idiom. It also dates from the mid 19th century and means exactly the same thing as to eat humble pie. And in this case, there is no pun – just the humiliation of eating something that’s definitely not finger lickin’ good. Q: That sounds almost as disgusting as eating deer offal.Ī: Yes it does. In America, they prefer the term, “to eat crow”. Q: So all this time, we’ve actually been eating “umble pie”…Ī: Well, those of us with British English as our base have. Q: So what happened to the word “umble/s”?Ī: Much like the practice of making such a pie, the word has died out – leaving the phrase, but hiding the pun that created it. To eat a pie filled with umbles was akin to being lowly, or humbled. The idiom came about in 1830 as a play on words on the fact that people dropped the “H” sound when saying the word “humble” at the time. Q: So “humble” and “umbles” are not related at all?Ī: No, except that they SOUND similar.
You could say they were the avocado toast of the Middle Ages. As for “why pies?” – well, because they were popular. It was a pie filled with umbles – an umble pie. The “humble” actually comes from the “umbles” – a plural of “numble” meaning a deer’s offal (waste parts) – fed to servants of lower rank in a pie during medieval times, while their masters ate the tastier cuts of meat. It’s more common in British than American English.Ī: Okay yes, of course. And I don’t mean to upset the applecart here, but can you just tell me the origin of “humble pie”?Ī: Ah, that’s another interesting one – dating back to “upsetting the cart” in Roman times, while the exact “applecart” phrase is from the late 1700s. “Spill the beans” was first used in 1902, initially meaning to cause an upset in horse racing or sports, before arriving at today’s “reveal a secret” definition in 1919. The phrase “to eat humble pie” is said in reference to what Macquarie Dictionary describes as “being humiliated” or “forced to apologise”.Ī: Well, the question should really be “why humble?”…Ī: Actually, that’s another foodie phrase. But we applaud your creativity.Ī: Well, let’s start by getting all the rock dwellers up to speed. Q: Is it because ‘a pile of pies’ sounds like ‘apologise’?Ī: Again, no. Specifically, why do we admit fault by eating humble pie? Why not a humble burger or casserole? Is it something to do with pastry?Ī: We’re pretty sure it has nothing to do with pastry. This week we are spilling the beans about eating humble pie.Ī: Oh, do you mean the mathematical constant that is approximately 3. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness.
To eat a humble pie how to#
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