Wordsmith.org
Posted By: Sushmita Etymology - 05/22/00 09:53 AM
Does anyone know the origin of the phrase "Teach my grandmother to suck eggs" ? It's such an amusing phrase, but where did it come from ?

Sush
Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: Etymology - 05/22/00 04:54 PM
I would love to know where this phrase originated, too! It also occurs in Brazilian Portuguese: vá ensinar tua vovô a chupar ovos. ("Go teach your grandmother to suck eggs") ... I was never quite sure what it meant, but I guess it's equivalent to "go fly a kite."


Posted By: tsuwm Re: Etymology - 05/22/00 05:23 PM
according to Quinion [see link], it's from an 18th century translation of a Spanish playwright; he also includes this verse to demonstrate the meaning:


Teach not thy parent's mother to extract
The embryo juices of the bird by suction.
The good old lady can that feat enact,
Quite irrespective of your kind instruction.


http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-tea1.htm

http://members.aol.com/tsuwm
Posted By: Jackie Re: Etymology - 05/22/00 06:30 PM
OH! OH! OH!
I bow, and kowtow, to the new enthusiast!
Congratulations!! You are Supreme in my book!
I visited the link--thank you.

Posted By: David108 Re: Etymology - 05/22/00 07:13 PM
in tones of great awe

Thank you for that, tswum. I have added the link to my bookmarks, and will certainly use it. How do you find these things?

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: Etymology - 05/22/00 07:25 PM
(adding my voiced to the awed)

That's great stuff, enthusiast tsuwm. I am humbled before your astonishing research talent. Thanks for this and other links. :-)

Posted By: tsuwm to my truckling claque... - 05/23/00 01:22 PM
[pleonasm can be fun!]

research for my own modest word page has led me to discover (1) all of the good word sites in the known English-speaking universe [hyperbole] and (2) several useful tricks for taming the available search engines.

for instance, try this at http://google.com

enter the following search string as shown:

grandmother "suck eggs"

and there, right at the top, you should see the hit for Quinion, with whom I was already quite familiar and on which I leaped forthwith. this stuff really ain't rocket science!

"What's another word for Thesaurus?" -Steven Wright
© Wordsmith.org