JPablo
August 22, 2010, 04:20 PM
Random House Unabridged definition:
eat crow, Informal. to be forced to admit to having made a mistake, as by retracting an emphatic statement; suffer humiliation: His prediction was completely wrong, and he had to eat crow.
I knew this story about how the expression "eating crow" came about and I found it in several places in the net. One of them is the following,
http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6447
(You can see the version there, but here I include it as well.)
Whether the full history is true or an invention, I don't go into it, but I thought it was witty and interesting to share with forum members. (Got inspired with some of the the dialogue between the American and British 'foreros'...)
EAT CROW: During an armistice toward the end of the War of 1812, an American soldier out hunting crossed the Niagara River past British lines in search of larger game. Finding no better game, he shot a crow, but a British officer heard the shot, resolved to punish the intruder and came upon him just as he was reloading his gun and surprised him. The Britisher tricked the Yankee out of the rifle, he gained control of the American’s gun by praising his marksmanship and asking to see his weapon, with which he shot so well. He then told the American he was guilty of trespass turned the gun on the American, demanding that he take a bite out of the crow he had shot as a punishment for violating British territory. The American complied, but when the officer returned his weapon and told him to leave, he covered the Englishman and forced him to eat the rest of the crow. That is the origin of to 'eat crow', “to be forced to do something extremely disagreeable,” as related in an 1888 issue of the ‘Atlantic Constitution’ [but the meaning of the expression today, is to be compelled to back down and confess/admit that you were wrong, which is of course distasteful and humiliating, but which is more than just having to do something disagreeable – it involves eating ‘humble pie’]. Although ‘to eat crow’ is possibly a much older expression, the saying first appeared in print in 1877 and the story may well be true—nothing better has been suggested. The concept behind ‘to eat crow’ is that crows are not good eating [all accounts I’ve seen imply it was eaten raw – is there any uncooked bird that is good eating?], but the flesh of young ones was once esteemed and I have it on the authority of the Remington Arms Co. that even old crows aren’t so bad if you simply “skin the bird, salt and cut it into pieces, parboil till tender and then fry with butter and onions.” I’ll eat crow if someone proves the recipe isn’t authentic.
“The incident became known, the story says, because the British officer went next day to the American commander and demanded that the soldier be punished for violating an armistice, telling his own version of the affair. When the soldier was brought in, the American captain asked if he had ever seen the Englishman before. After several attempts to speak, the stuttering Yankee finally had the wits to say, “W-w-why y-yes, Captin’, I d-d-dined with him y-y-yesterday.”
(Hey, by the by, is there any similar Spaniard/Royalists-'libertadores' stories or anecdotes... from the days of Bolívar... SanMartín... and those brave 'freedom fighters'?)
eat crow, Informal. to be forced to admit to having made a mistake, as by retracting an emphatic statement; suffer humiliation: His prediction was completely wrong, and he had to eat crow.
I knew this story about how the expression "eating crow" came about and I found it in several places in the net. One of them is the following,
http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6447
(You can see the version there, but here I include it as well.)
Whether the full history is true or an invention, I don't go into it, but I thought it was witty and interesting to share with forum members. (Got inspired with some of the the dialogue between the American and British 'foreros'...)
EAT CROW: During an armistice toward the end of the War of 1812, an American soldier out hunting crossed the Niagara River past British lines in search of larger game. Finding no better game, he shot a crow, but a British officer heard the shot, resolved to punish the intruder and came upon him just as he was reloading his gun and surprised him. The Britisher tricked the Yankee out of the rifle, he gained control of the American’s gun by praising his marksmanship and asking to see his weapon, with which he shot so well. He then told the American he was guilty of trespass turned the gun on the American, demanding that he take a bite out of the crow he had shot as a punishment for violating British territory. The American complied, but when the officer returned his weapon and told him to leave, he covered the Englishman and forced him to eat the rest of the crow. That is the origin of to 'eat crow', “to be forced to do something extremely disagreeable,” as related in an 1888 issue of the ‘Atlantic Constitution’ [but the meaning of the expression today, is to be compelled to back down and confess/admit that you were wrong, which is of course distasteful and humiliating, but which is more than just having to do something disagreeable – it involves eating ‘humble pie’]. Although ‘to eat crow’ is possibly a much older expression, the saying first appeared in print in 1877 and the story may well be true—nothing better has been suggested. The concept behind ‘to eat crow’ is that crows are not good eating [all accounts I’ve seen imply it was eaten raw – is there any uncooked bird that is good eating?], but the flesh of young ones was once esteemed and I have it on the authority of the Remington Arms Co. that even old crows aren’t so bad if you simply “skin the bird, salt and cut it into pieces, parboil till tender and then fry with butter and onions.” I’ll eat crow if someone proves the recipe isn’t authentic.
“The incident became known, the story says, because the British officer went next day to the American commander and demanded that the soldier be punished for violating an armistice, telling his own version of the affair. When the soldier was brought in, the American captain asked if he had ever seen the Englishman before. After several attempts to speak, the stuttering Yankee finally had the wits to say, “W-w-why y-yes, Captin’, I d-d-dined with him y-y-yesterday.”
(Hey, by the by, is there any similar Spaniard/Royalists-'libertadores' stories or anecdotes... from the days of Bolívar... SanMartín... and those brave 'freedom fighters'?)