To die
The idiom give up the spoon (also: lay down the spoon , … drop it and … throw it away ) is usually used to express that someone is dying or has died.
Derivations
The indispensable activity of eating is the inspiration for this idiom, together with the fact that in the Middle Ages and early modern times, poor people's food was usually a porridge in a bowl for everyone in the middle of the table, for which everyone had their own spoon ready. To put away this very own, often self-carved, spoon is synonymous with the end of life.
In the Black Forest , where a spoon could be seen as an individual item, there was a tradition of not giving a spoon to someone after the death of the owner, but of hanging it on the wall of the farmhouse. The farmhands, on the other hand, were often given a spoon by the farmer, which they had to hand over when they moved on, or which was re-used when they died.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Duden , Vol. 11, Proverbial Sayings , 1992
- ↑ This explanation can already be found in Johann Fischart's historical misunderstanding from the 16th century.