Bread-and-butter apartment

Posted by ESC on July 14, 2003

In Reply to: Bread-and-butter apartment posted by Denis on July 14, 2003

: Does anybody know anything about "bread-and-butter apartments"? What is it and where does the name come from?

I've never heard this phrase. We have discussed:

BREAD AND BUTTER - One meaning of this phrase is one's livelihood - how you get money (bread) to pay the rent ("keep a roof over your head) and buy food and send the kids to college. The use of the phrase in this manner is: "to quarrel with one's bread and butter - To complain about one's means of livelihoood, to act against one's best interests.our English phrase for expressing such lack of reason dates back not more than two centuries." From Heavens to Betsy! and Other Curious Sayings by Charles Earle Funk (Harper & Row, New York, 1955).

And then there's "bread and butter notes," thank you notes.

• Bread-and-butter apartment Denis 07/15/03
  • Bread-and-butter apartment ESC 07/16/03