Honey cake horse
A Honigkuchenpferd is a pastry from honey cake in the shape of a horse. Honey cake horses used to be sold at fairs . Today, like other gingerbread cookies , they are mainly offered during the Christmas season, for example at the Nuremberg Christmas Market .
Today, the term is mainly used in two slang idioms : "grin like a honey cake horse" and "shine like a honey cake horse". What is meant is someone who keeps grinning or beaming with happiness.
Idioms
Variants and meanings
According to the dictionary of the German vernacular of Heinz Küpper the phrase is "shine like a Cheshire cat" (radiate all over the face, happy smile) in use since the 19th century, the phrase "grin like a Cheshire cat" (grinning persistently, grinning rigidly ) since the 1830s. The rhyme "grinning like a honey cake horse with raisin eyes and a chocolate mouth" is also documented.
From 1900 the phrase "have a face like a honey cake horse" (have a rather expressionless face) came up; accordingly a simple-minded, energetic person was called a "honey cake horse". Since the 1940s, the phrase "have a mind like a honey cake horse" is also used, allegedly a paraphrase for "to be strange".
The lexicon of proverbial idioms by Lutz Röhrich puts the phrase "grin / shine like a honey cake horse" (shine all over your face, grin) in the foreground. In addition, it mentions the transferred word meanings “energetic person” and “stupid, simple-minded person” for “honey cake horse”.
Duden online is limited to the language that is prevalent today and gives the same meaning for "laugh / grin / shine like a honey cake horse": "to be very happy and laugh all over your face". Accordingly, the variant "happy like a honey cake horse" is also common.
origin
The dictionary of German colloquial language explains the origin of the idiom with "grin" with the fact that when decorating the honey cake horse, the mouth was depicted as a small bow with icing, so that a grinning expression was created. In contrast, Duden traces the idioms back to the shiny (“radiant”) surface of the pastry.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Duden online: honey cake horse
- ↑ The Nuremberg Christmas Market mobil.deutschebahn.com. One of the three pictures shows honey cake horses.
- ↑ a b c Heinz Küpper: Dictionary of German colloquial language . 6 volumes. Claassen, Hamburg 1955-1970.
- ↑ Lutz Röhrich: Lexicon of the proverbial sayings . Volume 3, Herder, Freiburg, Basel, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-451-04800-0 , p. 736.
