"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 07/09/17 (piece of cake)

When we talk about something that's a piece of cake. If something is a piece of cake, obviously, it's incredibly easy. And we know that cake goes down very easily. WE're not completely sure of the origin of this one but it might actually go back to quite a lovely story. Remember the MAry Poppins song, A Spoonful of Sugar, which is, "Every task you undertake becomes a piece of cake". That certanly cemented it in the popular imagination. But we thint it in factgoes back to the 19th century when cakewalks were incredibly popular in America. particularly amongst the African-American communities. Basically couples would compete, they woud go arm in arm and they would walk as elegantly and as fashionably as possible. And the prize was a cake, and that was awarded to the most graceful and stylish team going. It demanded skill and grace, but the term came to be used from there for a boxing fight that was very, very easily won. So it's very pissible that a piece of cake followed a similar route. So from sophisticated art of cakewalking back in the 19th century to the easiest thing inaginable. But it didn't not end there, either.  Because in America they also talked about taken the cake which was to carry off the honours. And that of course in British English becanme taking the biscuit, which for a while was a really good thing, to take a biscuit. The phrase taking the cake is actually much, much older, even, than those cakewalks in the 19th century. As early as 240 BC, the Greeks were talking about taking the cake as taking off victory from a military campaign, for example. You'll find it in Aristophanes and quite a few Greek writers so it goes bask a very, very long way. Yeah, taking the biscuit, taking the cake, possibly all the way back to those cakewalks. Thaking the biscuit we tend to use today for something that's not very good - "That take the biscuit!" There's usually the element of surprise. But once it was to do something which was the most stylish and graceful thing imaginable.