Cake:
When someone takes the cake they are regarded as having come
first in some, often trivial, activity or other. Most authorities
consider that this saying goes back to the days of slavery in the USA.
The slaves used to hold competitions to see which couple could produce
the most elegant walk. The best promenaders won a prize, almost always
a cake. The extravagant walk required for this type of competition came
to be called a Cakewalk and this gave rise to the old fashioned
expression "it's a cakewalk". However the meaning later came to
emphasise the trivial nature of the competition and began to imply that
the effort needed was minor and of little account. In consequence the
modern saying "it's a piece of cake" could well be based on these old
customs.
There is a much older possible origin, going back to the ancient
Greeks. A "cake" in those times was a toasted cereal bound together
with honey. It was given to the most vigilant man on night watch.
Aristotle is quoted as having written in "The Knights": "if you surpass
him in impudence, then we take the cake".
Can: To carry the can means to take the blame for something in which
others have also taken part and are largely responsible. The origin
here is not clear, but probably goes back to the days of servitude when
menial tasks had to be performed for the benefit of others, such as the
scullery maid working for the head cook.
Candle: He's not fit to hold a candle to him. This implies that 'he' is
inferior; from the times when boys held candles in theatres and other
places of work to illuminate either their masters themselves, or their
master's work.
The
game is not worth the candle. The effort is not worth making; not worth
even the cost of the candle that lights the players. French: Le jeu
n'en vaut pas la chandelle.
To
sell by the candle. A form of sale by auction. A pin is thrust through
a candle about an inch from the top, and bidding goes on till the
candle is burnt down to the pin; when the pin drops into the
candlestick the last bidder is declared the purchaser.
To
hold a candle to the Devil. To aid or countenance that which is wrong.
The allusion is to the Roman Catholic practice of burning candles
before the images of saints.
Cap: A feather in your cap is an honour or praise for good effort. The
original "effort", however, was one associated with killing an enemy.
An American Indian Brave was allowed to place an extra feather in his
head-dress for every new killing he made when on the warpath.
Carpet: To carpet someone summons up a picture of a boss reprimanding
an underling for a misdemeanour. This goes back to the days of the
Victorian Civil Service when attainment of a certain status carried
with it the right to a piece of carpet in the office.
To
give someone the red carpet indicates that they are regarded as
important. A suggested origin was posted on the SHU Phrases Forum.
"Sometimes carpets provided the actual architecture; for example, when
they were used in the construction of portable tent compounds for
military campaigns or royal visits. The layout of the Mughal palace was
re-created in these tent compounds. Rows of qanats, free-standing
textile screens, replaced red sandstone walls, and flower-covered
carpets reproduced the gardens of the inner courtyards. The red color
served to identify the emperor’s tent, and luxurious textiles not only
provided the comforts of home but also symbolically reminded envoys and
visitors of the power and the wealth of their rulers."
Jahangir, Mughal emperor from 1605 to 1627, once paid a visit to his
brother-in-law on New Year’s Day. To celebrate the event, his
brother-in-law carpeted the road between his house and the palace with
gold brocades and rich velvets, so that the royal entourage would not
have to touch the ground. Today we say “Roll out the red carpet” or
“the red-carpet treatment” to indicate the conferring of honor and
prestige."
Cart: "If you do that, you'll be in the cart". This saying implies that
there will be retribution if a certain deed is carried out. I can't
find a documented origin for this one, but I suspect that it goes back
to the days when criminals were publicly punished. Some were hung, many
others were placed in the stocks or the pillory. I guess most were
transported to their place of punishment in a cart.
To
upset the apple cart would appear to have an obvious origin. One can
imagine a busy market scene when, suddenly, some youths run by and hit
one of the stalls and, in their rush, over goes the apple cart.
Although this is likely to be the basis of the saying, in the early to
late 1800s "apple cart" was wrestlers' slang for the body and "down
with his apple cart" was to throw a man down.
Incidentally, the Romans had a similar expression "Perii, plaustrum
perculi" - "I am undone, I have upset my cart" and so the whole saying
may be very old indeed.
Cat: If there's not enough room to swing a cat then space is very
tight; the room is very tiny. The cat in this instance is said not to
be of the Pussy variety but, rather, o'nine tails type. The nine
thronged whip was used as punishment at sea. Because space was at a
premium below decks there was not enough room to wield the whip; in
consequence the whipping always took place on deck.
Evidence against the above origin comes from the fact that the
expression was in use in the 1500s and the cat o'nine tails was not
invented until the mid 1600s. Thus it may be that the saying truly
involves felines, since there used to be a "sport" of swinging cats as
targets for archers. This was either by their tails, in a sack, or in a
leather bottle. Shakespeare, in "Much Ado About Nothing" (I,i) uses the
phrase "hang me in a bottle like a cat".
To
let the cat out of the bag is said to occur if a secret is revealed.
This type of cat is truly furry, unlike that just described. In
medieval times piglets were often taken to market in a sack where they
were sold. If the purchaser was particularly gullible he was sometimes
sold not a piglet, but a cat in the sack. Cats are versatile animals
and sometimes managed to escape - the cat was truly out of the bag. In
similar manner it was possible to be sold a pup. Incidentally, the sack
or bag was correctly termed a poke, hence a pig in a poke. To be sold a
pig in a poke was clearly the object of the exercise and why it has
come to imply a swindle I can't understand, although, if you were daft
enough not to look in the bag and found something else inside when you
got home, then you clearly didn't get what you wanted! However, there
are other sayings and words which have reversed their meanings over the
years. Why this should be so is not understood but this drift of
meaning is known as catachresis. A good example of drift is found in
the word Brave. In the past it implied cowardice as, indeed, Bravado
still does. Incidentally, the diminutive of poke lives on today in
modern English in the form of Pocket.
