Chopped liver

[Catherine Aman]

what makes deli so funny (eg, indicting a ham sandwich)?

> ----------
> From:         Douglas G. Wilson
> Reply To:     American Dialect Society
> Sent:         Friday, August 9, 2002 9:57 AM
> To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject:      Re: Chopped liver
>
> "Chopped liver" means "something cheap or trivial or something which can
> be
> ignored". It's been around since the 1930's, says Chapman's dictionary.
> HDAS shows an example from 1954. It's like "chickenfeed", or the "hay" in
> "That ain't hay". Why? Maybe because -- pound for pound -- chopped liver
> is
> (or was once) relatively inexpensive ... compared with, say, pastrami. I
> think any 'plebeian' substance can (in principle) be named in such an
> expression; perhaps this one has or had an ethnic or other connection
> which
> suited it to some comedian's shtick. I remember it from my childhood,
> usually in a context like "A million dollars? Now, that's not chopped
> liver!" Some of the food-word specialists may know a lot more.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>