“The proof is in the pudding” means that the outcome is uncertain until the task is completed.
The expression began as, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Pudding wasn’t always exclusively a dessert.
When the expression was coined, a pudding was any food presented in a solid mass and was often a main course, such as Yorkshire pudding.
Popularized in 1605 by Cervantes in Don Quixote the saying has been traced back to 1300.
Today, “the proof is in the pudding” means that you can’t tell the value of something simply by its appearance.
Related Posts
-
What Is Yorkshire Pudding, Who Invented Yorkshire Pudding, and Where Did Yorkshire Pudding Come From?
The eating customs of the poor from all over the world were intended to fill stomachs with little cost. Yorkshire pudding is one of England's answers to this culinary problem. Although we think…
-
What Does the Saying Started At Pudding and Ended At Pie Mean and Where Did the Expression Come From?
Started at pudding and ended at pie is a British saying that has come to mean anything all-encompassing or far-reaching; figuratively, from one end of town to the other. The origin of the…
-
Where Does the Term Proof Come From and What Does “Alcohol By Volume” Mean?
The term proof was coined in the seventeenth century when people proved, or tested, the alcohol content of whiskey by moistening gunpowder with it and setting it afire. (Honest.) A slow, even burn…
-
What Does the Word Proof Mean on a Bottle of Liquor?
The term proof that is found today on every bottle of liquor dates back centuries. In earlier times, there was no scientific way to find out how much alcohol was in liquor. So…
-
Where Does the Expression “To Beard the Lion In His Den” Come From and What Does the Saying Mean?
The expression "to beard the lion in his den" comes from two separate stories in the Old Testament of the Bible. I Samuel 17:35 has David telling of how he confronted and killed…
-
Where does the saying “to a T” come from and What does the expression mean?
We use the expression "to a T" very commonly in the sense of minute exactness, perfection; as, the coat fits to a T; the meat was done to a T. It is easy…
