the.com/silver spoon
Born on third base, thinks the stadium applauds for free.
means To be 'born with a silver spoon in your mouth' means to be born into wealth and privilege, with advantages handed to you rather than earned.
from The phrase nods to the old custom of gifting silver spoons at christenings — a godparent's present only the wealthy could easily afford, and which poorer infants simply wouldn't get. A baby born into money, the image goes, arrives already holding one, rather than feeding from a plain wooden or horn spoon like everyone else. The expression has been in English use since at least the early 1800s, often tied to the related old saying that someone can be 'born with a spoon in his mouth' meaning fortune's favorite from the start.
- origin
- silverware was once status, given to infants at christening
- idiom age
- traces back to 1700s english
- economics term
- describes inherited wealth, not earned privilege
- irony
- often used by people who never had one