#68773
05/05/2002 11:29 AM
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A friend of mine frequently says "but it just didn't cut the mustard" when something didn't live up to expectations. Can anyone tell me where on Earth this might have come from - or even whether they've heard of it before??
Cheers
Alexis
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#68774
05/05/2002 12:58 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Q AND A SECTION
CUT THE MUSTARD
From Jerzy Wawro: "Some years ago I came across an article about a
zoo and its new acquisition, a lion. The zoo had hoped to gain cubs, but
this lion, as the newspaper informed me, was unable to cut his mustard.
What has mustard got to do with it? Is there a good story behind this
expression or is it just one of those enduring nonsenses?"
It seems that the phrase is of early twentieth-century US origin. The first
recorded use of the phrase is by O Henry in 1907, in a story called The
Heart of the West: "I looked around and found a proposition that exactly
cut the mustard". The modern sense of the idiom is "to succeed; to have
the ability to do something; to come up to expectations". But why that
exact phrase, nobody seems to know. Cutting mustard is hardly an
arduous endeavour, after all, and there seems not to be any older phrase to
which it is related.
One explanation that is sometimes given is that the phrase is a corrupted
form of cut the muster, in some way connected with the military muster
or assembly of troops for inspection. However, if you cut a muster,
presumably you do not attend it, so how this can be connected with the
idea of excellence is far from clear. The clinching argument for this not
being the source is that nobody has found the supposedly original phrase
cut the muster anywhere.
It's much more likely that it's a development of the long-established use of
mustard as a superlative, as in phrases such as keen as mustard. In the
nineteenth century in America, mustard was used figuratively to mean
something that added zest to a situation, and the proper mustard was
something that was the genuine article. The move from genuine to
excellent is just a short step. O Henry used the word in the sense of
something excellent in Cabbages and Kings in 1904: "I'm not headlined in
the bills, but I'm the mustard in the salad dressing just the same".
But how the idea of cutting the mustard became included are not known.
As I can't fully answer your question, let me present as a consolation prize
the reason why mustard is so named. It derives from an ancient French
way of making a hot condiment by grinding up the seeds of various
members of the cabbage family in the freshly pressed juice of grapes, then
called the moust (must in modern English). A French word moustarde
appeared to describe this mixture, which was brought into English in the
twelfth century and quickly settled to the modern spelling. (Luckily moust
and moustarde shifted their spelling and pronunciation in the same
direction down the years, so their connection is still obvious.)
World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996-. All rights reserved.
Page created 1 August 1998; last updated 22 January 2000.
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#68775
05/05/2002 7:04 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Can't tell you from whence but it is used with some frequency here in New England! Also stuff like :
"That process just doesn't cut the mustard."
"She's too short to cut the mustard."
"He too dumb to (be able to) cut the mustard."
"The company's pension plan just didn't cut the mustard."
However I have faith someone will know the origin.,
More about mustard:
Isn't there a Bible reference about being able to get into heaven even though faith "be smaller than a mustard seed?"
As long as we are on the suject ... any more mustard references *not* connected to food ? ! ?
LATER - Dr B got on board before I could ... seems he's just about covered the subject
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#68776
05/05/2002 9:04 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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I'd always assumed that cutting the mustard meant being able to cut the potency of it, since a little bit can go a long way.
What's that feelin you get when you know you've tasted that particuoar brand of mustard before? Dijon vu.
TEd
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#68777
05/05/2002 9:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Oh, TEd, honey; such seedy puns! Must you hotdog so? I know, you relish them, you saucy thing you. Nobody else here could ever hope to ketchup to you.
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#68778
05/06/2002 11:46 AM
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There's a couple of bits about mustard in the New Testament - Jesus says if you have faith the size of a mustard seed (ie, very small) you can move mountains (but if I pray right now to move Everest, it probably won't happen because God knows I'm just doing it to prove myself to all you mob); and Jesus also describes the Kingdom of God like a mustard seed, because it starts off small and then grows to be the biggest tree around (in first-century Palestine it was one of the biggest, anyway).
Thanks to all for thinking about this for me =]
alexis
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#68779
05/06/2002 12:35 PM
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Marlene Dietrich and Rosemary Clooney made a record "Too old to cut the mustard" [late '40s/early '50s?] which, I assume, has nothing to do with food.
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#68780
05/06/2002 5:23 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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if you cut a muster, presumably you do not attend it
Assuming that that is what is meant by cut in this context, an assumption that I do not feel is entirely warranted. Merriam-Webster offers this definition in this context:
to be able to manage or handle -- usually used in negative constructions <can't cut that kind of work anymore>
This would make cut the muster all the more likely; to be able to show up ready to accomplish a job.
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#68781
05/07/2002 7:15 PM
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Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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We stayed in Dijon for two nights in February. Everything there cuts the mustard ... 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#68782
05/10/2002 4:00 PM
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In England it is common to say 's/he just couldn't cut it' when talking of someone who fails to come up to scratch.
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#68783
05/10/2002 9:26 PM
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There's a mustard story about Alexander the Great as well. The day before a battle between the Great and King Darius of Babylon (had to look around a bit for his name, couldn't recall it), Darius sent Alexander a huge bag of sesame seed to symbolize the vastness of his army. Alexander responded by sending a small bag of mustard seeds, to indicate that although he had fewer men, his were strong and fierce.
And Alexander, being Great, then opened up his can of whup-ass and won the battle.
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