amazing etymologies

[Peter A. McGraw]

Naah!  Remember how easy it was to do calculations using pi (or even to
remember what, specifically, pi was) in grade school arithmetic?  Obviously
the original expression was "easy as pi," reflecting this common experience.

Now please forward this etymology to everyone you know, requiring them to
forward it to at least five friends....

Peter Mc.

--On Sunday, February 17, 2002 2:18 PM -0800 Arnold Zwicky
<zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:

>
> "Easy as Pie"
>
> As in "Drinking Silk is easy as pie because it tastes so
> good!". Origin: The phrase "easy as pie" originated in Australia
> around 1920. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with eating pie. It
> comes from a Maori word (the language of a people native to New
> Zealand) "Pai", which means "good". To be pie at something is to be
> good at it. To be easy as pie is to be so good at something it's easy.
>
> --------------
>
> arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu), noting that NSOED has
>   a much less exciting (and 19th-century) history, which
>   takes the "pie" in question to be a development from the
>   ordinary culinary noun



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                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu