English Edification Enrichment (16)

What is the origin of "salad days"?

Shakespeare is believed to have coined this expression. He first used it in "Antony and Cleopatra". In the play Cleopatra says, "My salad days, When I was green in judgement, cold in blood..." The expression "salad days" refers to the days when we were young and relatively inexperienced. Those growing up days when we repeatedly kept making mistakes because of our lack of experience. So even those who have never eaten salad have had salad days! The expression is considered to be rather old fashioned.

Here are a few examples,

* John was in his salad days then and fell in love easily.
* The town did not seem to have changed much since his salad days.

It's been pointed out several times in this column that one of the meanings of "green" is inexperienced.

For example when you say,

"Micheal is too green for the job" what you are implying is that he is too inexperienced for the job.

The expression "salad days" too means inexperienced.

What is the connection between "salad" and "green"?

Well, a salad is usually made of raw vegetables. In other words, green vegetables! Since salad was mostly green in colour, people began to refer to one's early days as "salad days". By the way, the first "a" in "salad" is like the "a" in "act", "fact", and "pact", while the second is like the "a" in "china". The main stress is on the first syllable.

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