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Chris -- 2018-04-11
‘Mess of pottage’ owes its persistence to the Biblical story of Esau, who sold his birthright for this soup/stew of lentils. ‘Porridge’ remains a common foodstuff and its substitution seems reasonable…
229 unique hits
These cowards, chasing the Aso Rock gravy train, now forget everything that Pa Awo taught us – that you DO NOT sell your soul for a mess of porridge. ...
news.biafranigeriaworld.com/Focus/1999-present/FumiOnObasanjo/FumiOn00.html – 899k – Cached
Entirely descriptive of some of the leadership in the Pentagon who are selling their souls for a mess of porridge, while trading away real capability and …
fareastcynic.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_archive.html – 174k – Cached
Vincent Van Gogh for example, once sold one of his paintings for a single loaf of bread (like Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of porridge). ...
www.faithwebsites.com/sysfiles/member/s … mberid=161 – 348k – Cached
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According to the OED, “porridge” is etymologically a variant of “pottage.” And in fact, its definition for “pottage” is “A soup, stew, or porridge.” Since the two words are pretty much synonyms, and closely related historically, I’m afraid “mess of porridge” is probably a modernization rather than an eggcorn. But I think it certainly deserves mention here on the forum as an interesting and common “non-eggcorn.”
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“Mess” comes to us from Indo-European1. It started out as mittere, to send, which shows up as the French mettre, and I’m guessing, in English remit. Meals sent to the table became French mets (which translates to “dish”, as in a spicy Indian dish) and then English mess, which can be heard in “a mess of collard greens”. The signification of mess as ‘untidiness’ is comparatively recent, arriving within the last 200 years. The same root led to dismiss, mission and message and to the Catholic mass.
Separate in origin is the word “mass”, in English at least. This comes from Proto-Indo-European2 in the form of knead and cake, lump, mass or ball (another of those words most aptly defined using themselves). I’m guessing again, but it looks like the medium is massage rather than message.
Pottage is what can be cooked in a pot, again from the French, first attested to in English 60 years after the Battle of Hastings. As Pat indicates, porridge is a blend of potage and poireau, or leek soup.
Selling one’s birthright for a mass of pottage is thus a tidy reshaping for the Bible’s original mess of pottage.
Talk about selling one’s birthright for a mass of pottage.
(http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/index … f-pottage/)
If you vote, you will be selling your own birthright, and your future, for a mass of pottage;
(http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/or/or84-6.html)
I’m not the one selling my birthright for a mess of potatoes...
(http://www.nigeriansinamerica.com/vbull … p?p=206842)
A no-nonsense modernization
but I hit a nerve because none of you have a clue as to what the truth is. You sold your birthright for a mass of porridge
(http://www.nydailynews.com/forums/threa … &tstart=80)
This I read as a reshaping for mass only
It is unlikely that many would be aware of the roots of the word mess. See for example “If I’m going to get into vegetable eating this time of year, a mess of greens is good way to go. I’m not really sure why they always say “a mess,” but that’s what most people down South call ‘em. In fact, X told me that you always refer to greens as ’”a mess of greens.” (http://food.theatlantic.com/behind-the- … ations.php)
So we can surmise that “a mess of greens” is a stealth eggcorn that has taken on the “untidy” connotation in many minds, though the word originated as food anyway.
[1] OED and http://podictionary.com/?p=873
[2] OED and http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mass
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Wow. Hundreds of hits for “mass of pottage/porridge.”
Perhaps the fact that soup, porridge and pottage are, like water, mass nouns, makes it easier to “massify” them. If Esau had sold his birthright for a “mess of turnips,” would we still see comparable confusion with “mass of turnips?”
Since “mess of pottage” is a Biblical phrase,* an analogy of Esau’s meal with the meal of the Christian mass may also play a role (though this sense of “mass” does derive from the ppl of “mittere” and not from the PIE word for “lump”).
Ken also noted this mass/mess confusion in 2005: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/contribute/#comment-4253
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*The phrase “mess of pottage” is not found in any translation of the Bible. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mess_of_pottage for background. In Gen 25 the KJV says that Jacob “sod pottage” for Esau (“Sod” is the old ppl of “seethe.”). The Masoretic text being translated uses an onomatopoetic boil verb with a cognate noun, as does the Septuagint translation. Jacob, it seems, just “boiled up something boiled.” My own belief, admittedly a minority one, is that Jacob offered his brother an expresso when Esau was having a caffeine crash.
Last edited by kem (2009-04-19 12:03:50)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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