• cakewalk •
Printable Version Pronunciation: kayk-walk • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Something easily accomplished: selling cosmetics is a cakewalk for her. 2. A 19th-century strutting contest held among African Americans in the southern US in which the contestant who walked with the fanciest steps won a cake. 3. A prancing, strutting dance once performed in minstrel shows.
Notes: The compound, cakewalk, came from the name of the strutting contest mentioned in the second definition above. It is also the origin of the expression, "Well, if that doesn't take the cake!" said when someone outdoes expectations—the equivalent of, "Well, if that doesn't beat all!" A cakewalker is someone who prances or struts when they walk.
In Play: 
If you read the newspapers in the US these days, you will see that the mid-term elections are not going to be a cakewalk for the Republicans. It is interesting that the negative of cakewalk, i.e. not a cakewalk, usually refers to something exceptionally difficult: "Lester found that running the company was more like herding cats and not at all the cakewalk he had expected." A cakewalk is anything that is exceptionally easy: "Marcia, you read all the time! Winning the spelling bee will be a cakewalk for you."
Word History: Cake was borrowed from the Vikings during their raids along the northern coasts of England in the 11th century. It was the Old Norse correlate of Modern Swedish kaka "cake, cookie, loaf". (Apparently Viking cakes were not as tasty as those we bake today.) Walk comes from the root meaning "roll", which also underlies German Welle "wave", walzen "to roll", which we borrowed for our wavy dance, the waltz. (Coming up with interesting words like today's is a cakewalk for the Pale Writer of our Agora, John Hall.)
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