Have one's cake and eat it
Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:58 am
To have one's cake and eat it (too) - to consume something and then still possess it; to "have it both ways".
I used to be puzzled by this expression. Why have a cake if one cannot eat it? It should, of course, logically be "eat one's cake and have it (too)", and although that is sometimes heard, it is not the usual form of the idiom. Can anyone suggest why we normally use the illogical version?
Also, note that the "have" is essential to the phrase. In spoken English one sometimes hears it carelessly omitted, e.g. "He always wants his cake and eat it".
I used to be puzzled by this expression. Why have a cake if one cannot eat it? It should, of course, logically be "eat one's cake and have it (too)", and although that is sometimes heard, it is not the usual form of the idiom. Can anyone suggest why we normally use the illogical version?
Also, note that the "have" is essential to the phrase. In spoken English one sometimes hears it carelessly omitted, e.g. "He always wants his cake and eat it".