You can't have your cake and eat it (too) is a popular English
idiomatic
proverb or figure of speech.[1][2][3]
Many people misunderstand the meanings of "have" and "and" as used here
but still understand the proverb in its entirety and intent and use it
in this form. Some people feel this form of the proverb is incorrect and
illogical and instead prefer "you can't eat your cake and have it
(too)", which is in fact closer to the original form of the proverb[4]
(see further explanations below) but very rare today. Other rare
variants use "keep" instead of "have".[5]
The proverb literally means "you cannot both possess your cake and
eat it". It can be used to say that one can't or shouldn't have or want
more than one deserves or can handle or that one can't have or shouldn't
try to have two incompatible things. The proverb's meaning is similar to
the phrases "you can't have it both ways" and "you can't have the best
of both worlds." Conversely, in the positive sense, it refers to "having
it both ways" or "having the best of both worlds."
Having to choose whether to have or eat your cake illustrates the
concept of
trade-offs,[citation
needed] or
opportunity cost.[6]
History
An early recording of the phrase is in a letter on 14 March 1538 from
Thomas, Duke of Norfolk to Thomas Cromwell, as "a man can not have his
cake and eate his cake".[7]
In
John Heywood's "A dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All
the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue" from 1546, the phrase occurs with
the clauses reversed, as "wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your
cake?".[8]
In John Davies' "Scourge of Folly" of 1611, the same order is used, as
"A man cannot eat his cake and haue it stil."[9]
That same order is used again in
Jonathan Swift's 1738
farce
"Polite Conversation", in which the character Lady Answerall says "she
cannot eat her cake and have her cake."[10]
The order was reversed in a posthumous adaptation in 1749, "Tittle
Tattle; or, Taste A-la-Mode", as "And she cannot have her Cake and eat
her Cake."[11][12][13]
From 1812 (R. C. Knopf's "Document Transcriptions of War of 1812" (1959)
VI. 204) is a modern-sounding recording as "We cannot have our cake and
eat it too."[14]
Literal meaning
Paul Brians, Professor of English at Washington State University,
points out that perhaps a more logical or easier to understand version
of this saying is, "You can’t eat your cake and have it too." Professor
Brians writes that a common source of confusion about this idiom stems
from the verb to have which in this case indicates that once
eaten, keeping possession of the cake is no longer possible, seeing that
it is in your stomach (and no longer exists as a cake).[15]
Alternatively, the two verbs can be understood to represent a sequence
of actions, so one can indeed "have" one's cake and then "eat" it.
Consequently, the literal meaning of the reversed idiom doesn't match
the metaphorical meaning. The phrase can also have specialized meaning
in academic contexts; Classicist Katharina Volk of Columbia University
has used the phrase to describe the development of poetic imagery in
Latin didactic poetry, naming the principle behind the imagery's
adoption and application the "have-one's-cake-and-eat-it-too principle".[16]
Other languages
Various expressions are used to convey similar idioms in other
languages:
-
Bulgarian: И вълкът сит, и агнето
цяло – Both the wolf is full, and the lamb is whole.
-
Czech: Aby se vlk nažral a koza zůstala celá – The wolf
is full and the goat stayed whole.
-
Chinese: 又要马儿跑，又要马儿不吃草' (pinyin:
Yòu yào mǎ'er pǎo, yòu yào mǎ'er bu chī cǎo.) – To want a
horse that both runs fast and consumes no feed; or 魚與熊掌不可兼得 from
Mencius – You cannot have both the fish and the bear's paw (as a
rare delicacy) at the same time.
-
Danish: Man kan ikke både blæse
og have mel i munden – You cannot both blow and have
flour in your mouth.
-
Dutch: Je moet kiezen of delen
– is based on card games such as
Bridge
or Whist
where one can either pass or choose a game. In case you're the last,
you have to choose a game or the cards are discarded and redealt. In
case your hand is just not good enough, you have to choose to play a
game and potentially lose it, or discard a potentially winning hand.
Both are impossible, you can't have it both ways.
-
French: Vouloir le beurre et
l'argent du beurre – to want the butter and the money
from (selling) the butter. The idiom can be emphasized by adding
French: et le sourire de la
crémière (and the smile of the female
buttermaker).
-
German: wasch' mich, aber mach mich nicht naß! – please
wash me, but don't get me wet!.
-
Switzerland: Du chasch nit dr Füfer und s Weggli ha –
you can't have the five cent coin and a Swiss bread roll.
-
Greek: Και την πίτα ολόκληρη και
τον σκύλο χορτάτο – you want the entire pie and the dog full.
-
Hebrew: אי אפשר לאכול את
העוגה ולהשאיר אותה שלמה – you can't eat the cake and keep it
whole.
-
Hungarian: Olyan nincs, hogy a
kecske is jól lakjon, és a káposzta is megmaradjon. – It
is impossible that the goat has enough to eat and the cabbage
remains as well. Also,
Hungarian: Egy fenékkel nem
lehet két lovat megülni. – It is impossible to ride two
horses with one butt. (The meaning is similar to the Russian
translation.)
-
Italian: Avere la botte piena e
la moglie ubriaca – to have the barrel full and the wife
drunk.
-
Nepal: dubai haat ma laddu – having laddu (a sweet
candy) in both your hands.
-
Papiamentu: Skohe of lag'i skohe – choose or let choose.
-
Persian: هم خر را خواستن و هم خرما
را – wanting both the donkey and the sugar-dates.
-
Polish: Wilk syty i owca cała
– The wolf is full, and the lamb [is] whole.
-
Portuguese: Querer ter sol na
eira e chuva no nabal – Wanting the sun shine on the
threshing floor, while it rains on the turnip field.
-
Romanian: Nu poți împăca și
capra și varza – You can't reconcile the goat and the
cabbage.
-
Russian: И рыбку съесть, и в воду
не лезть – wanting to eat a fish without first catching it
from the waters.
[17]
-
Serbian: Не можеш да имаш и јаре и
паре – You can't have both goatling and money.
-
Spanish: Querer estar en Misa y
en procesión – wishing to be both at Mass and in the
procession, and
Spanish: estar en Misa y
repicando (or
Spanish: estar en Misa y tocar
la campana – to be both at Mass and in the belfry,
bell-ringing.
-
Argentina:
Spanish: la chancha y los
veinte – the pig and the twenties. (Comes from the
old piggybanks for children that used to contain coins of 20
cents. The only way to get the coins was to break the piggybank
open – hence the phrase. This can be emphasized by adding
Spanish: y la máquina de
hacer chorizos – and the machine to make sausage.
-
Tamil: மீசைக்கும் ஆசை கூழுக்கும்
ஆசை – desire to have both the moustache and to drink the
porridge.