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Feed a cold and starve a fever

Posted by ESC on June 04, 2009 at 02:02

In Reply to: Feed a cold and starve a fever posted by Smokey Stover on June 03, 2009 at 20:03:

: : : : : : Coming from the North of England I was brought up to believe that the phrase "Feed a cold, starve a fever" was indeed a misquotation, but not quite as your explanation goes. We would say "feed a cold, starve of fever!" It sounds the same if you say it quickly. In other words, if you behave so as to make a cold worse, you may catch a fever and starve: starve can mean feel cold or shiver, as in the expression: "you look half-starved, lad" when someone comes in out of the cold. So I conclude that the saying has nothing to do with food or eating, just good advice. Any thoughts?

: : : : : To get the discussion ball rolling, here is what was posted previously. www.phrases.org.uk bulletin_board 6 messages 418.html

: : : : Hmmm... interesting. Everyone I've ever talked to thought it meant "If you have a cold, you should eat. If you have a fever, you shouldn't eat." If the fever ran out of fuel, it would break.
: : : : I've never heard this "If you eat while you have a cold, you'll get a fever and then starve." That seems easily disprovable. Is there some specific disease that works like that - you're sick with no fever, then you get a fever, then you starve?
: : : : I've also never heard "half-starved" to mean anything but skinny or hungry.

: : : To touch on the last of those points, very briefly: I am Irish, and it is not uncommon in Ireland to hear the phrase 'starved with cold' and the like.

: : : DFG

: :
: : "Starve" in English originally simply meant "die" (Old English "steorfan", cognate with modern German "sterben"). The meaning gradually mutated to "die a lingering death, e.g. from hunger, cold, poison, etc." and finally, in standard English, was restricted to "die of hunger" only. The intervening sense survives in several dialects, so that in Yorkshire and Northern Ireland you can "look starved with cold". (VSD)

: The discussion above suggests that the maxim, "feed a cold and starve a fever," has varied so widely from its original wording that it can now be labeled just another old wives' tale. Possibly it always has been. Do we actually know what the original version may have been? Or are we guessing that there must have been one, with different wording? I am confused.
: SS

From the archives:

"Certainly among the most familiar of proverbs on home remedies, this old saw is by no means a sure cure. In fact, there is even disagreement over what advice is being given. The English lexicographer John Withals observed in 'A Short Dictionary Most Profitable for Young Beginners' , 'Fasting is a great remedie in feuers,' providing what might seem an early basis for the current saying. But the contrary recommendation appeared soon afterward in Stegano Guazzo's 'The Civile Conversation' : 'It is better to feede a fever, then weakness.' Centuries later Edward FitzGerald in 'Polonius recorded the current proverb for the first time, as well as a note on what was already a common misconception: 'In the case of.a Cold - Stuff a cold and starve a fever,' has been grievously misconstrued, so as to bring on the fever it was meant to prevent.' In 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County . Mark Twain Quoted the exact wording of the current saying, but in 1881 the publication 'Notes and Queries' explained, 'Stuff a cold,' &c. The expression is elliptical, for (if you) stuff a cold, (you will have to) starve a fever,' which is to say stuffing yourself while you have a cold will supposedly bring on a fever. Despite the confusion and no little uncertainty as to whether it really is a remedy at all, 'Feed a cold.' has been repeated (and misunderstood) up to the present day. It seems the best advice is still that fairly recent prescription, 'Call your doctor.'" From Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New; by Stu art Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).

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