Not so green as I'm cabbage looking

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on April 27, 2005

In Reply to: Not so green as I'm cabbage looking posted by Gary on April 26, 2005

: : : : Whats the history of the old Yorkshire saying, I'm not so green as I'm cabbage looking?

: : : I don't know the history. What it means is 'I might be ugly but I'm not naive'. It's still used here in Yorkshire.

: : I've known the phrase all my life (I'm a Londoner) and I have never known it used to imply ugliness. Cabbages are green (well, old-fashioned English ones are) and therefore to be "cabbage-looking" is to be green. "Green" here is used in the sense "inexperienced, naive", so the meaning of "he's not so green as he's cabbage-looking" is "he's not as gullible as he looks".

: That;s not the way it's used here in Yorkshire.

: amazing. I had no idea it meant something different up North. Maybe you don't like cabbage as much as we do down here?