This week’s theme
Words coined after metals

This week’s words
golden calf
silver spoon
tinhorn
brass tacks
ironclad

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SIL-vuhr spoon)

MEANING:

noun: Inherited wealth.

ETYMOLOGY:

The phrase is often used in the construction “to be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth” meaning one’s born in privilege and wealth. The association of silver with riches is obvious, so why not a gold spoon? Nobody knows, though it may have something to do with silver’s biocidal properties. Earliest documented use: 1719.

USAGE:

“’We started this with a base of knowledge on the wine business, not with a silver spoon or a bunch of money that we made in Silicon Valley,’ she said.”
Bill Swindell; North Coast Wineries Fight for Survival Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic; The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California); May 31, 2020.

See more usage examples of silver spoon in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: