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Volume X
Three expressions and their surprising origins
I. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you 🤲
Here’s a phrase your mom hit you with after you scoffed at her “We have food at home.”
It traces back to ancient times — versions of it pop up in Aesop’s fables and Roman texts, where animals turning on their caretakers were used as metaphors for betrayal. By the 1700s, it started showing up in English political writing and moral essays, warning against biting the “bountiful hand” of one’s patron or benefactor.
Just imagine a royal dog snapping at the hand offering table scraps. Not only is it bad manners, it’s an even worse survival strategy.
Today, it shows up anytime someone slams the company they work for, trashes their landlord or ghosts the friend who helped them move a couch.
II. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd 🧑🧑🧒🧒
Trends in today’s culture move at lightning speed, and capturing consumers’ attention has never been more critical (just ask TWS co-author Antonio Collins, who once donned the red polo as a Presentation Analyst at Target).
The origins of the concept date back to the early 19th century, right here in the United States. P.T. Barnum, the legendary showman (you might recognize the name from the 2017 hit The Greatest Showman) was ahead of his time when it came to marketing. Known for his clever tactics, Barnum understood the power of drawing a crowd. One of his favorite strategies was to gather large groups outside his shows, by any means necessary, to spark curiosity and lure in passersby.
Whether or not he actually coined the phrase “nothing draws a crowd like a crowd” is up for debate, but his methods still live on today. So the next time you find yourself in a line wrapped around the block to try TikTok’s proclaimed best slice west of the Mississippi, tip your cap to the late Connecticut native. Barnum walked so today’s influencers could run.
III. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree 🍎
This one's an all-timer — as classic as Coca-Cola in a glass bottle, and one that probably sneaks into your vernacular every now and again. You might think it’s inspired by the story of Sir Isaac Newton discovering gravity or Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, but it’s actually a bit less flashy than that. The phrase traces back to a German or Eastern European proverb—the German version is “Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm.” It rolled into English by the 1700s and stuck around — probably because apples really do land near the tree, barring a stiff breeze or a hungry toddler.
Ralph Waldo Emerson helped popularize it in the U.S. in 1839, writing in a letter: “As men say, the apple never falls far from the stem.” Think of it as a more poetic—and often slightly condescending—way of saying “like father, like son,” usually delivered tongue-in-cheek after someone makes a familiar, regrettable choice.