As easy as pie

As easy as pie

As easy as pie is a popular colloquial idiom which is used to describe a task or experience as pleasurable and simple.[1][2] The idiom does not refer to the making of a pie, but rather to the act of consuming a pie ("as easy as eating a pie") which is usually a simple and pleasurable experience.[2] The phrase is often interchanged with piece of cake, which shares the same connotation, but a different origin.[2]

It has been compared to the Chinese idiom "yi ru fan zhang", meaning "very easy", and literally "as easy as turning one's hand over".[3]

Contents

Origin

There are some claims that the phrase originated in the 1920s from aboriginal Australia expression "pie at" or "pie on" from the Maori term "pai" which means "good", but it was used in the Saturday Evening Post in 1913 (22 Feb.), and in 1910 by Zane Grey in "The Young Forester", and is probably a development of the phrase "like eating pie", first recorded in "Sporting Life" in 1886.

See also

  • Yi ru fan zhang

References

  1. ^ Almond, Jordan (1995-01-01). Dictionary of word origins: a history of the words, expressions, and clichés we use. Citadel Press. p. 87. ISBN 9780806517131. http://books.google.com/books?id=Hq5Rog6KBqQC&pg=PA87. Retrieved 29 November 2010. 
  2. ^ a b c Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. London, United Kingdom: Chambers Harrap Publishers. 2009. pp. sec. As. http://credoreference.com/entry/brewerphrase/as#s000436b. 
  3. ^ Tang, Chihsia (2007). "A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND CHINESE IDIOMS WITH FOOD NAMES". USTWPL 3: 83-93. National Tsing Hua University. pp. 89–90. http://ling.nthu.edu.tw/USTWPL/vol3/7_A%20Comparative%20Study%20of%20English%20and%20Chinese%20Idioms%20with%20food%20Names_Tang,%20Chihsia.pdf. Retrieved 29 November 2010. 

Further reading

External links


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