10 October 2012

Clams are not always happy

The full phrase is "happy as a clam at high tide."
The phrase originated in the north-eastern states of the USA in the early 19th century. The earliest citation that I can find is from a frontier memoir The Harpe's Head - A Legend of Kentucky, 1833...  The expression was well-enough known in the USA by the late 1840s for it to have been included in John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary Of Americanisms - A Glossary of Words And Phrases Usually Regarded As Peculiar To The United States, 1848:
"As happy as a clam at high water," is a very common expression in those parts of the coast of New England where clams are found.
Text from The Phrase Finder.

2 comments:

  1. "Happy as a clam in the mud at high water" is what I heard, growing up in Maine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just a hunch, but I'm guessing you were born after 1848?

      Delete

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