Having cake . . .

[Charles Doyle]

What a cool little article in the Language Log, Ben!

To nudge back the American dating a little--and note a couple of additional early American examples--there's this from B. J. Whiting's _Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases_ (Harvard UP, 1977), #C8:

1742.  "Would you (like the Child) cry to have your Cake, that you had eaten."

1781.  "There was another Set of Men . . . who having ate their Cake & being turned away, cried to have their Cake again."

1812.  "We cannot have our cake and eat it too."

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:55:23 -0400
>From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>
>Well, there's the Unabomber. See my Language Log post:
>
>http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002762.html

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