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a little bit of bread and no cheese

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 5 June 2022
Thesong of a yellowhammerrecorded inDevon,England, U.K.

Etymology

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Onomatopoeic; the bird’s song is thought to resemble the rhythm of the phrase.

Pronunciation

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Interjection

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alittlebitofbreadandnocheese

  1. (British,idiomatic)Used torepresent thesong of theyellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella).
    • 1839 July 13, “British Birds”, inThe Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume VIII, number467, London:Charles Knight & Co., […],→OCLC,page266, column 1:
      The song of the yellow-hammer consists of little more than a monotone, repeated quickly several times, some emphasis being laid on the last note, which is also uttered at greater length. It is almost the only bird whose note is heard in the heat of a summer's day. The cow-boys in some parts of the country have given the following interpretation to the yellow-hammer's song:— "A lit—tle bit of bread, andno cheese."
    • 1862,C[harles] A[lexander] Johns, “The Yellow Hammer. Emberíza citrinella.”, inBritish Birds in Their Haunts, London:Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; […],→OCLC,page192:
      In Devonshire it [the yellowhammer] goes by the names of "Little-bread-and-no-cheese," and "Gladdy." Of the latter name I do not know the origin; that of the former is clear enough; for if the words "A little bit of bread and no cheese" be chanted rapidly in one note, descending at the word "cheese," the performance, both in matter and style, will bear a close resemblance to the bird's song.
    • 1871–1881,H[enry] E[eles] Dresser, “Emberiza citrinella. (Yellow Bunting.)”, inA History of the Birds of Europe, […], volume IV, London:[…] [Taylor and Francis for] the author, […],→OCLC,page 4:
      [A]s twilight sets in, the Yellow Hammer may still be heard, and is perhaps the last bird to give a parting note to the retiring day, with the exception of his congener the Corn-Bunting, who sings till it is quite dusk. Country people imitate the note of the Yellow Hammer by the words, "a little bit of bread and nocheese," the accent on the last word; but sometimes the utterance alters in tone, the request being fora "little bit of bread andno cheese," the last word being dropped and the accent on the penultimate.
    • 1875, [Walter Besant,James Rice], chapter VIII, inWith Harp and Crown. […], volume I, London:Tinsley Brothers, […],→OCLC,page139:
      [T]he yellowhammer, who also had words as well as tune, sang his refrain of "a little bit of bread and no cheese," with a tremendous emphasis on theno;[…]
    • 1896, “the Amateur Angler”[pseudonym; Edward Marston], “Spring and Summer Rambles”, inBy Meadow and Stream: Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Places, London:Sampson Law, Marston and Company […],→OCLC,page38:
      It is delightful to hear the yellowhammer's song—his only song: "A little bit of bread and no c h e e s e."
    • 1911, Beatrix Potter,The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes, London, New York, N.Y.:Frederick Warne & Co.,→OCLC,page21:
      There were several sorts of little birds, twittering different songs. The first one sang—“Who’s bin digging-upmy nuts? Who’s-been-digging-upmy nuts?” And another sang—“Little bita bread and -no - cheese!Little bit - a - bread an’ -no - cheese!”
    • 1931 May 20,Louis Golding, “A Rosary of Lovely Places”, inThe Commonweal: A Weekly Review of Literature, the Arts and Public Affairs, volume XIV, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Calvert Publishing Corporation,→OCLC,page74, column 1:
      "A little bit of bread and no cheese!" cry the yellowhammers petulantly. But no one takes any notice of them.
    • 1961 January 26, “Notes and Comments: Bird Calls and Beer Drinking in African Language”, inBernard Dixon, editor,New Scientist, volume 9, number219, London:IPC Magazines,→ISSN,→OCLC,page197, column 1:
      The Africans, it seems, have the British countryman's habit of making a phonetically similar sentence out of a bird's call. The yellow-hammer, for instance, is supposed to say "a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese". In Zande, the laughing dove callsurugu nolu akpi akpi, which can be translated as "the planter of eleusine [a local cereal] will die".
    • 2015,Nick Baker, “Feathered and Flighty: Birds”, inThe Complete Naturalist, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Natural History,Bloomsbury Publishing,→ISBN,page51:
      In Europe the song of the Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) can be heard, with a little poetic licence, as ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’, the Quail (Coturnix coturnix) as ‘wet my lips’.

Further reading

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