One more scavenger hunt for a phrase related to Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, having earlier rummaged around for "grapes of wrath" and "peel me a grape"––
KHAN: "Kirk, old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb, Revenge is a dish best served cold?"
In film history, seems the sentiment first turns up in this classic:
"Revenge is a dish which people of taste prefer to eat cold."
Someone else went hunting for the origin of the phrase and reports a funny misidentification:
The 'Nets confidently report that 'revenge is a dish best served cold' is a translation of the line "La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froide" from Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses ("Dangerous Liasons"--there are several movie versions).
As that text doesn't appear in the novel, or any other work by de Laclos, the story appears to be a piece of impressively industrious folk etymology - not only a made up source, but made up in French [...and I understand from French corresponents that the 'froide' should be 'froid' - not a mistake that de Laclos might have made].
So... seems it's a common saying, in general use, with no one literary source.
Bonus: Sheldon quoting the original Klingon on the Big Bang Theory:
KHAN: "Kirk, old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb, Revenge is a dish best served cold?"
Someone else went hunting for the origin of the phrase and reports a funny misidentification:
The 'Nets confidently report that 'revenge is a dish best served cold' is a translation of the line "La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froide" from Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses ("Dangerous Liasons"--there are several movie versions).
As that text doesn't appear in the novel, or any other work by de Laclos, the story appears to be a piece of impressively industrious folk etymology - not only a made up source, but made up in French [...and I understand from French corresponents that the 'froide' should be 'froid' - not a mistake that de Laclos might have made].
Bonus: Sheldon quoting the original Klingon on the Big Bang Theory:
A proverb, then. Found this, which is only slightly interesting,
ReplyDeletehttp://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1580
Thanks, ZHOEN, for that more than "slightly" interesting (to me) article about fictional linguistics!
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