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Pie hole

Posted by Gary Martin on January 20, 2000

In Reply to: Pie hole posted by ESC on December 27, 1999

: : : Can anyone provide any insight into how the phrase, "shut your pie hole" come about? I know it essentially means "shut your mouth" but was looking for an origin, if one exists.

: : I've heard the expressions "shut your pie hole" and "shut your cake-hole" in movies and what not. But not in real life. I assumed they are American expressions. If memory serves, the union organizer/New York character said "shut your cake-hole" to the title character in the movie "Norma Ray." (Rae?)I couldn't find either expression in my southern sayings books. But I did find this in "The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang" by Tony Thorne (1990, originally published by Bloomsbury Publishing). "cakehold, n. British. Mouth. A slang term which was extremely widespread (and considered by many to be vulgar) in the 1950s and 1960s. It survives in the argot of schoolchildren." PS. Excuse the typo. Make that "cakehole, n. British..."

Shut your cake hole was used widely in England from at least 1950s to1970s. A bit archaic now but still used. occasionally.

Gary

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