revenge is a dish best served cold

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word revenge is a dish best served cold. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word revenge is a dish best served cold, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say revenge is a dish best served cold in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word revenge is a dish best served cold you have here. The definition of the word revenge is a dish best served cold will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofrevenge is a dish best served cold, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

Earliest known metaphorical reference to revenge as food in English is “And then revenge is very good eaten cold, as the vulgar say”, from a 1846 translation of Eugène Sue's Mathilde: Mémoires d'une Jeune Femme.[1][2] The passage suggests that it was an existing expression. Similar proverbs are known as early as the 17th century with “Reuenge is not good in cold bloud” in a translation of Don Quixote.[3]

The phrase exists in various Romance languages: Italian la vendetta è un piatto che va servito freddo, Spanish la venganza es un plato que se sirve frío, French la vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid. In French, it's commonly used since at least the 19th century.

In English, many variations are attested but the exact phrase revenge is a dish best served cold may originate from the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.[4]

Proverb

revenge is a dish best served cold

  1. Revenge is best or most satisfying when delayed.
    • 1892, James Payn, A Modern Dick Whittington; or, A Patron of Letters, volume 1, page 222:
      He was no coward, but it had suddenly struck him that the present was a very ill-chosen time for a row with his younger relative, however successful might be the issue. Such violence should not go unpunished, but vengeance is a dish that can be eaten cold.
    • 1949, Robert Hamer, John Dighton, Kind Hearts and Coronets, spoken by Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price):
      Time had brought me revenge on Lionel, and as the Italian proverb says, revenge is a dish which people of taste prefer to eat cold.
    • 1969, Mario Puzo, The Godfather, New York, page 404:
      Don Corleone nodded. “Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is cold,” he said.
    • 1982, Jack B. Sowards, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, spoken by Khan (Ricardo Montalbán):
      Of course! We are one big, happy fleet! Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ Eugène Sue (1864) “XXXV, Revelations”, in D. G. Osborne, transl., The Orphan, or Memoirs of Matilda‎, volume 1, illustrated by Robert Cruikshank, London: T. C. Newby, page 303
  2. ^ The citation for the passage in the original French work is: Eugène Sue with Jean Cavalier, et al. (1841) “XVII, Révélations [XVII, Revelations]”, in Mathilde: Mémoires d'une Jeune Femme [Mathilde: Memoirs of a Young Woman]‎ (in French), third edition, volume 3, Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin, page 53: “Et puis la vengeance se mange très-bien froide, comme on dit vulgairement”
  3. ^ Jennifer Speake, editor (2015), “REVENGE is a dish that can be eaten cold”, in Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 6th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 265: “Vengeance need not be exacted immediately; but cf. 1620 ᴛ. ꜱʜᴇʟᴛᴏɴ tr. Cervantes' Don Quixote ɪɪ. lxiii. Reuenge is not good in cold bloud.”
  4. ^ Gary Martin (1997–) “Revenge is a dish best served cold”, in The Phrase Finder.
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia