I am that food lover word nerd described HERE by the kitchn. That academic with too many (pointless) masters degrees that loves such things as idiom derivatives. The kitchn leads us to THIS ARTICLE by the Smithsonian Magazine and this follow up article. “Spilling the beans” likely refers to the ancient Greek voting system of putting beans in jars. If a jar was spillt, the results were prematurely apparent. As for “salad days”? I thought the term was created by Holly Hunter and Nick Cage’s characters in Raising Arizona. Really. It’s from Shakespeare. Shame on me. And I had no idea the Spanish equivalent of “go fly a kite” was “go eat asparagus.”
[tags]food idioms, work origins[/tags]
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