the proof of the pudding is in the eating
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
This proverb dates back at least to the 14th century as "Jt is ywrite that euery thing Hymself sheweth in the tastyng", and William Camden stated it in 1605 in Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine as "All the proofe of a pudding, is in the eating", per Rogers' Dictionary of Cliche and the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.[1]
A 1682 translation of Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux Le Lutrin (written between 1672 and 1674) renders it "The proof of th' pudding's seen i' the eating."[2]
The current phrasing is generally credited to Spanish proverb by Miguel de Cervantes in Don Quixote (1615)[3], as translated to English by Peter Anthony Motteux in 1701.[4] Although, Cervantes' original phrase was about eggs al freír de los huevos lo verá (“you will see it when you fry the eggs”).[5]
It is frequently now known in the shorter form the proof is in the pudding, which dates back to the 1920s and came into common use in the United States in the 1950s.[6], [7]
Proverb [edit]
The proof of the pudding is in the eating
- The only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for.
Translations [edit]
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References [edit]
- ^ Proof of the pudding (Answers.com)
- ^ Re: Correct Cliche (Joel Wolfson, Imagelib mailing list, Mon 10 Jun 1996)
- ^ The proof of the pudding is [in] the eating. by Miguel de Cervantes (Quoteworld)
- ^ “Proof of the pudding”, The Phrase Finder, Gary Martin.
- ^ New Boundaries in Old Territory. Emory Studies in Early Christianity, volume 3, footnote 107
- ^ Proof of the pudding (Michael Quinion, World Wide Words)
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary, According to Ask Yahoo, "the proof is in the pudding" come from?", Tue 03 Sep 2002.
