Monday, June 8, 2009

I Was Just Thinking...



    Why do we use the expression, "Easy as pie"? Have you ever tried to make a pie? The peeling, coring and slicing of the apples, making the pastry/working the dough trying to get it nice and flaky, doing the pinchy thing with your fingers around the top of the pie and then trying to bake it to golden brown perfection without being too mushy on the bottom. I think the saying,"Hard as pie" would make way more sense...not that I've ever even attempted a pie mind you. And then when I googled "pie" I was reminded of these mesh pies that are even more work...


     "Easy as Pie?" I don't think so, Tim. So I googled it... 

   Q; What is the origin of the saying, "Easy as pie?"


    A; Meaning. Very easy. 

   Origin:

    There are many similes in English that have the form 'as X as Y' . These almost always highlight some property - X, and give an example of something that is well-known to display that property - Y. For example, 'as white as snow', 'as dead as a dodo' and, risking a group slander action from our noble friends, 'as drunk as a lord'.

    How though, are pies thought to be easy? It seems that, while not being easy to make, pies are generally thought to be easy to eat. At least, that was the view in 19th century America, where this phrase was coined. There are various mid 19th century US citations that, whilst not using 'as easy as pie' verbatim, do point to 'pie' being used to denote pleasantry and ease. For example, the related phrase 'as nice as pie' was used in Which: Right or Left? in 1855:

"For nearly a week afterwards, the domestics observed significantly to each other, that Miss Isabella was as 'nice as pie!'"

In The Adventures Huckleberry Finn, 1884, Mark Twain twice uses 'pie' in that same context:

"You're always as polite as pie to them."

"So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice,... and was just old pie to him, so to speak."

Pie was also used at that time for something that was easy to accomplish. For example, The US magazine Sporting Life, May 1886:

"As for stealing second and third, it's like eating pie."

   Thrilling.

2 comments:

Lianne said...

I think I've heard "As cute as pie" too. It's all greek to me though.

B. Diederich said...

This made me laugh as I just spent an hour and a half picking and pitting some cherries and was getting aggravated because I have some classwork to do...

Now, my mom made pie look easy...she could whip up the crust without measuring and it only seemed to take a few minutes...

Perhaps it was all of our child slave labor (getting the fruit ready in the meantime?) that made it seem fast and easy.
(That's a lie. We only tried to help, but really just stole bits of apple or peaches.)

I do, however, remember despising gooseberry cleaning--TEDIOUS!

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