Born with a Silver Spoon in Your Mouth

New Driver

Yesterday I was out for a walk and I saw Mustang with a “New Driver” (초보운전) bumper sticker on it. A bumper sticker is a sticker on the back of cars. Apparently, in the late 90s, new drivers were required to put a bumper sticker on their car. However, the law was abandoned in 1999 and now drivers can put anything they want. Other countries have tighter regulations on this. So, I can’t say that this person is a new driver, but if they are, they must have been born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Foreign made cars are expensive here. Normal people probably can’t afford a mustang for their first car. Maybe a parent bought it for them?

 

 

Meaning

Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth means that you were born to a rich (or high class) family. You had privileges and advantages because of it. There is a stereotype that these rich kids don’t appreciate anything because they always got what they wanted. I am not sure this is totally true, but I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. It is often used as an accusation that the person doesn’t understand the value of money or doesn’t appreciate something.

Example: She’s only 4 years old and has an iPhone? She must have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

 

 

Origin

The first recording of the phrase is from a 1719 translation of Don Quixote, “tis not all Gold that glisters, and every Man was not born with a Silver Spoon in his Mouth.” Since this was a translation, we can assume that the phrase was already in common use by that time.

Another notable instance of the phrase comes from The Citizen of the world: or letters from a Chinese philosopher, residing in London, to his friends in the east (1762), “Had I the good fortune to have lost my leg and use of my hand on board a king’s ship, and not a privateer, I should have been entitled to cloathing and maintenance during the rest of my life, but that was not my chance; one man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and another with a wooden ladle.” I like this longer version because it shows the difference between rich and poor. The rich man has a silver spoon, and the poor man has a wooden ladle (like a spoon). Actually, the word spoon comes from the old English word from a splinter of wood, spon.

It is known that British Aristocrats (rich class) would give silver spoons to their godchildren as gifts when they were baptized. Shakespeare mentioned this tradition in The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth (1613).

People also used to bring their own spoons to dinner; like carrying your wallet, phone, or keys today. So, a silver spoon showed that you were high class.  These spoons usually had the name or symbol of the owner on it, or a picture of the “Blessed Virgin”.

People have also been collecting souvenir spoons since the mid-1800s. By the 1890s, souvenirs were being produced to commemorate American cities and towns. Maybe it is similar to Starbucks’ tumblers nowadays. My mother used to collect spoons as well. I was reminded of her when I visited a restaurant in Cheongyang and some teaspoons on the wall.

 

 

BONUS: My First Car

My first car was a Firebird, which is a sports car. However, it was not as new as that Mustang I saw. At my high school there were a few Mustangs, but I was the only one with a firebird at that time (small school). I grew up poor and saved my money to buy that car. Like I said, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. My car was 13 years old when I bought it. It looked like a sports car, but it was actually classified as a family car because it had the small engine. Sometimes I raced my friends and they would beat me with their parents’ car. But I loved that car. I also remember that there were a couple of 5.0L mustangs at my high school. The 5.0L Mustangs had the larger engine and were more expensive. I am pretty sure that their parents bought the car for them.

 

 

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Resources:

https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20220304500209
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_spoon
https://wordhistories.net/2017/09/17/born-with-silver-spoon/
https://www.etymonline.com/word/spoon
https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/history-of-souvenir-spoons/