Proverb: omlets are not made without breaking eggs (antedating 1796 May)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Outstanding, Garson. Thanks.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

On Fri, Feb 04, 2011 at 11:57:43AM -0500, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.
>
> Oxford Reference online lists this proverb in three texts: "A
> Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", "Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs" and
> "Oxford Dictionary of Quotations: Proverbs."
>
> The OED (April 2009) also lists this saying as a phrase under the
> headword omelette. The Yale Book of Quotations has it, and Fred
> discussed it on the Quotes Uncovered blog on Thursday. The earliest
> cite given in these references is for a variant in 1859. Eric M. Jones
> posted an 1804 cite as a blog comment yesterday. The following cite
> pushes back to an earlier century:
>
> Cite: 1796 May, Walker's Hibernian magazine, Some Particulars
> Respecting the Capture of Charette, Page 411, Printed by R. Gibson.
> (Google Books full view)
>
> It was remarked to him that he had caused the death if a great many
> persons. Yes, he replied, omlets are not made without breaking eggs.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=Z7wRAAAAYAAJ&q=toilets#v=snippet&
> http://books.google.com/books?id=Z7wRAAAAYAAJ&
>
> The "omlets" spelling is tricky, but the OCR exacerbates the search
> problem because the word is recognized as "toilets". Also, the phrase
> is broken because the two column structure is incorrectly interpreted
> and the columns are combined.
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org