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Trivia
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The mousse did it.
Dear Word Detective: Where does the saying “the proof’s in the pudding” come from? My mom told me to look it up because she used it, but I can’t find anything about it except for people using it, nothing about what it means or where it came from! — Sammy.
Well, that’s because you’re probably using Google. Google is good for many things, but when what you want is the story behind something (as opposed to simply a sense of how many people are talking about it), it’s like trying to take a sip from a firehose. Next time you’re looking for a word or phrase origin, go to our website at www.word-detective.com and look at the top left of any page. There you’ll find a Google search box that only searches the Word Detective website.
I actually did cover “the proof is in the pudding” about eight years ago, but it’s a common question, so we’ll take it for another spin. “The proof is in the pudding” is a popular figure of speech meaning “the quality, effectiveness or truth of something can only be judged by putting it into action or to its intended use” (“So the proof is in the pudding: they made a big pronouncement on crime prevention, and now they have to follow through,” Edmonton Sun, 3/25/08).
At first glance, “the proof is in the pudding” seems thoroughly mysterious. What proof, in what pudding? Does this have anything to do with Colonel Mustard in the study with a candlestick? But the key to the mystery lies in the fact that “the proof is in the pudding” is actually a mangled form of the original phrase, which was “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” A dish may have been made from a good recipe with fresh ingredients and look delicious, but you can really only judge it by putting it in your mouth. The actual taste is the only true criterion of success.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating” is a very old phrase, dating back to at least 1605, and “proof” in the adage is an antiquated use of the word in the sense of “test” (also found in “printer’s proof,” a preliminary “test” copy of a book printed to check for errors, etc., before commencing a large print run).
Just how and why “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” was shortened to the semi-nonsensical “the proof is in the pudding” remains a mystery, but it’s worth noting that most people now interpret “proof” in the sense of “conclusive evidence.” That’s probably just as well, since “the test is in the pudding” would make, if possible, even less sense. In any case, “the proof is in the pudding” is hardly the only English idiom that doesn’t make any sense if read literally, and it certainly serves a useful purpose, even if it does sound like a cryptic clue from a Sherlock Holmes story.
No problem.
Dear Word Detective: My question might sound ridiculous, but I’ve been wondering — where did the word “thanks” derive from? — Vince Leguesse.
That’s not only not a ridiculous question, it’s a question that I am astounded no one has ever asked me before. It makes me wonder how many other truly omnipresent English words are lurking out there unexplained. After all, I’m not exactly a social butterfly (sometimes, in fact, it seems like most of my conversations are with cats and dogs), and I know I say “thanks” at least ten times on an average day. Heck, if you eat in a place with waiter service, you probably say “thanks” at least five times in the course of the meal.
What makes the “thank-less” history of this column all the more odd is that “thanks” is actually a very interesting word.
There are, of course, several forms of “thanks.” When we say “thanks” to a waiter for bringing us a clean fork, we’re using a short form of “thank you,” which itself is short for “I thank you.” As a noun, we use “thank” only in the plural (“thanks”) today to mean “a feeling of, or an expression of, gratitude” (often with the verb “to give,” as found in the American holiday Thanksgiving). We also use “thanks” in the more figurative form “thanks to” meaning “because of” (“Thanks to our insurance, we had a new car right away”), as well as ironically or sarcastically (“We were two hours late to the party, thanks to Bob’s awesome navigation skills”).
In whatever form we use “thanks,” noun or verb, given or received, we are, in most cases, speaking primarily of a sentiment, an intellectual and emotional expression, of gratitude. That means that “thanks” start in the human brain, which brings us to the root of “thanks,” which is simply the very similar word “think.” The same prehistoric Germanic root produced both “think” and “thank,” and when the noun “thank” appeared in English around A.D. 735, it meant simply “thought.” Over the centuries, “thank” came to mean specifically “a favorable thought” or “goodwill,” especially goodwill or gratitude felt in return for a favor done. So the declaration “I give you thanks,” from which our modern forms such as “Thank you” and “Thanks” descended, was simply a way of saying “I have good feelings toward you because of what you’ve done for me.”
Of course, if we learned nothing else from The Sopranos, it’s that it may be the thought that counts, but nothing really says “Thanks, pal” quite like an envelope full of money.
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400+ pages of science questions answered and explained for kids -- and adults!
FROM ALTOIDS TO ZIMA, by Evan Morris
 
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