I was watching CBS’ Sunday Morning and someone used the phrase, “What do I look like, chopped liver?” to signify the annoyance of being overlooked.
Googling the phrase showed no source. The earliest quote I found was about 30 years ago, but I know it’s older than that. I recall hearing/reading it in the early 60’s, but I can’t remember a cite. Some sources claim it’s Yiddish, but no one has a source they can pinpoint.
Anyone got a cite earlier than 1970?
I did find a 1954 Jimmy Durante quote, “Now that ain’t chopped liver.”, but it doesn’t have the meaning of, “Why aren’t you considering me”. Nor do we know whether JD was talking about a person or something else.
but all they explain is what it means. No one can say WHEN it originated to mean, “Why are you overlooking me?”
Because it might be relevant, when was chopped liver a common dish? People barely eat any liver anymore, it seems. Chopped liver Vs liver sounds like ground beef Vs. beef to me. Is chopped liver an even lower dish than just liver?
It’s more of a spread, like pate. It’s not simply plain chopped liver. And people eat liver in the form of pate or other spreads very commonly today. Fried liver is not so common these days as it once was.
I don’t have any actual evidence, but, as the OP mentions, I have always had the impression that this expression comes from Yiddish, or at least in some way Jewish, culture.
Wiki, for what it’s worth, has a couple of possible explanations.
The first explanation isn’t cited. The second one (the side dish explanation) cites something call “Ask the Rabbi”, which doesn’t strike me as any more authoritative on this particular issue than Wiki.
I will say that the side dish explanation rings true to me but, as Cecil has said, in etymology something ringing true is often a red flag rather than favorable evidence.
Okay, chopped liver is a side dish. But I also wonder if ignoring chopped liver is symbolic.
Chopped liver is a stereotypical Jewish food. And the idiom implies that on a table with all kinds of foods, the chopped liver is ignored.
The symbolism is that some Jews might have the feeling that in a predominantly Christian country like America with all the different sects like Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc, the Jews are ignored.
The original expression was, as you seem to have found, “…that ain’t chopped liver.” That meant it wasn’t insignificant. Chopped liver would have been cheaper than corned beef, pastrami, lox, etc. in the 1940s and earlier. It’s not hard to see how it morphed into “what am I, chopped liver?” to mean “what am I–insignifcant?”
You can find the “what am I, chopped liver” expression in a play(1949) by Joey Adams, famous Jewish comedian. I have no doubt it existed in Borscht Belt comedian’s routines earlier than that.
Thank Og! My mom used to make that when I was a kid (circa 1960’s), and I HATED it! (I haven’t eaten fried liver since I graduated from high school and moved out.)
I just had fried liver with bacon and onions at a new restaurant that opened in my area. I saw it on the menu and thought “I haven’t had that in years”, so I ordered it.
I also hated the two times my mom made fried liver in the 1950s/60s. Back then, you cooked most meats til they were overdone, and thus killed it. Also, it was probably the cheapest liver you could buy, cows/pigs liver. Today, you buy veal/calves/lamb liver.
The quality of the liver you buy has everything to do with what it tastes like. How you cook it is the second step in either making something yummy or something that can replace the soles on your shoes. Liver is cooked on the rare side. When done correctly, not at all what you grew up hating.
:dubious: This would only make sense if the phrase “what am I, chopped liver?” was significantly used by Jews to express feelings of marginalization specifically with respect to non-Jews.
But AFAICT, that’s completely irrelevant to the origin of the phrase. Twentieth-century Jewish comedians used the phrase “what am I, chopped liver?” when speaking to Jewish audiences about interactions between Jews. It’s an ingroup joke.
Also, a typically Jewish table with chopped liver as a side dish also has many other typically Jewish dishes that are more popular. There’s nothing uniquely or extraordinarily Jewish about chopped liver as compared to lox, pastrami, gefillte fish, etc. So the idea that it’s somehow the Jewishness of chopped liver that signifies its marginalization makes no sense at all.
Chopped liver isn’t ignored; it goes pretty damn fast. But it’s cheap and easy to make, and is either a side dish or appetizer. The phrase refers to the fact that it’s not the main meal, but something on the side.
Chopped liver is not historically beef liver; it’s chicken liver*.
Beef liver was a possible cheap main dish. Chicken livers weren’t. But peasant cultures tend to use parts of the animal that were discarded in cultures that had more money, because pennies counted. Making chicken livers into a tasty side dish - by the addition of large amounts of fat - was an example of a standard survival skill.
But entrails were not “nice” food, the kind you served guests or on special occasions. Chopped liver was a nosh, a side dish, an extender, something not quite first rate. That’s the meaning of the Adams quote and the Durante quote. If you have to ask if you’re being treated as chopped liver, then you’ve been ignored or slighted.
*I know you can use beef to make chopped liver; I’ve had it. Even so, it’s chicken liver that’s at issue here.
Nice column. It never occurred to me that “get lost” is in fact a not-very-English construction.
So are “get bent,” “get fucked” linguistic descendants?
Also, I think the word “enjoy,” said by a waiter (usually) when placing a yummy dish in front of you–is that a Yiddish borrowing?
Thanx exapno, I was going to mention the same thing when I read “It was the one and only thing I refused to eat. I like chicken livers, though.”
Just as a guess I don’t think it has to do with chopped chicken livers being a side dish. Since when do side dishes get ignored?
I thik it has more to do with when one moves up in social or economic status one leaves the inexpensives “this’ll do” dishes behind. The chicken liver gets ignored because of the “nice” foods that are available. Chicken livers are still ridiculously cheap (which is why I will occasionally make chopped liver)
It’s like the Milwaukee’s Best in the cooler with Belgian and German beers and Champagne splits. It gets left behind.
