the.com/food for thought
An idea served without plates, meant to be chewed slowly and digested badly.
means Something said or written that's substantial enough to make you stop and think it over, rather than forget it instantly.
from A 19th-century metaphorical coinage that simply extends the food/nourishment metaphor to the mind — treating an idea as something to be mentally 'digested.' The phrase is first recorded in English in the early 1800s, growing out of a much older habit of calling mental activity 'digestion' or 'chewing over' a problem — the same instinct that gives us 'ruminate,' which literally meant chewing cud before it meant pondering.
- origin
- Popularized in 19th century English essays, not farms
- metaphor type
- Eating mapped onto thinking, universally understood
- side effect
- Often left unfinished, like actual leftovers
- warning
- Contains no calories, occasionally contains truth