humble pie

Where does the word "humble pie" come from? It comes from Latin lumbulus, passing through Old French and English before entering English (1669).

Humble pie’s story begins in Latin: lumbulus meant “little loin.” 'little loin', diminutive of lumbus 'loin'. By 1200s, the word had taken hold in Old French as nombles. The edible innards of a deer; the l changed to n. From there it passed into English as umble pie by 1663. 'numbles' became 'umbles' by losing its n to the article; Samuel Pepys records on 8 July 1663 that Mrs Turner brought him an 'umble-pie hot out of her oven'. It reached English by 1669 as humble pie. 'humble pie' appears in print by 1669, and the pun later gave 'to eat humble pie', to be forced to apologise. Today, humble pie means (eat humble pie) to make a humble apology after being proved wrong.

1. Stage 1 · Latin · classical lumbulus "little loin", 'little loin', diminutive of lumbus 'loin'.
2. Stage 2 · Old French · 1200s nombles "deer offal", the edible innards of a deer; the l changed to n.
3. Stage 3 · English · 1663 umble pie "pie of deer offal", 'numbles' became 'umbles' by losing its n to the article; Samuel Pepys records on 8 July 1663 that Mrs Turner brought him an 'umble-pie hot out of her oven'.
4. Stage 4 · English · 1669 humble pie "humiliation", 'humble pie' appears in print by 1669, and the pun later gave 'to eat humble pie', to be forced to apologise.