I say it's spinach

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I say it's spinach (sometimes given in full as I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it or further abbreviated to just spinach) is a twentieth-century American idiom[1] with the approximate meaning of "nonsense" or "rubbish".[2] It is usually spoken or written as an anapodoton, thus only the first part of the complete phrase ("I say it's spinach") is given to imply the second part, which is what is actually meant: "I say the hell with it."

Rose and White's cartoon

Original cartoon from The New Yorker

The phrase originated as the caption of a gag cartoon published in The New Yorker on December 8, 1928. Drawn by Carl Rose and captioned by E. B. White,[3] the cartoon shows a mother at table trying to convince her young daughter to eat her vegetable, the dialogue being

Mother: "It's broccoli, dear."
Daughter: "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it."

(

East Coast cities.[4]
)

Catching on in the 1930s

The line was reused (with slight alteration) by writer David Plotkin and artist Otto Soglow in this cartoon for the 1934 book Wasn't the Depression Terrible?

What White called "the spinach joke"

Saturday Evening Post "Dental or Mental, I Say It’s Spinach".[10]

Berlin's song

Irving Berlin's song "I Say It's Spinach (And the Hell with It)", which appeared in the 1932 musical Face the Music, used the full phrase: "Long as I'm yours, long as you're mine/Long as there's love and a moon to shine/I say it's spinach and the hell with it/The hell with it, that's all!".[11]

Gammon and spinach

In Britain in the 19th century, "spinach" also meant "nonsense". This is presumably coincidence, with an entirely different origin for the 19th century meaning.

better source needed
]

2015 Hafeez cartoon

In its 6 August 2015 issue, The New Yorker published a cartoon by Kaamran Hafeez that called back to the 87-year-old cartoon. A young girl and her mother are in a therapist's office, with the caption, "You said, and I quote, 'I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it.' Why don't we start there?"

References

  1. ^ "The Press: I Say It's Spinach". Time. October 22, 1951. Retrieved February 1, 2014. Many a New Yorkerism (e.g., Cartoonist Carl Rose's 'I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it') has become a part of the language.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper. "spinach (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  3. ^ Kimble Mead (February 22, 1981). "Haigravations". On Language column New York Times Magazine. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  4. ISBN 978-0-8032-6014-6
    . Retrieved 24 April 2012.
  5. ISBN 978-0060906061
    . Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  6. ^ "Ngram Viewer". Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  7. ASIN B000E9J0K8
    .
  8. ISBN 0-87910-047-8
    .
  9. ISBN 9781171855460
    . Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  10. ^ Phil Stephensen-Payne. "The Saturday Evening Post [May 27, 1944]". The FictionMags Index. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
  11. ^ "Berlin Irving - I Say It's Spinach (And The Hell With It) Lyrics". SongLyrics. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  12. ^ Dickens, Charles (1849). The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger. B. Tauchnitz. p. 107. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  13. ^ cf. Tryon, Thomas (1691). Wisdom's Dictates. p. 144. Spinnage boiled, or stewed, and buttered and eaten with Bread, makes a brave cleansing Food... (p. 134 in the 1696 edition)
  14. ISBN 978-0198600886
    .
  15. ^ a b MMcM (September 23, 2007). "Kookoo". Polyglot Vegetarian. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  16. ISBN 978-0304351671
    . Retrieved February 2, 2014.
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