# Sliced bread

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliced-bread/5651>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 29, 1999, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliced-bread/5651 "1999-12-29T20:39:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 1999, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliced-bread/5651/1 "1999-12-29T20:39:00Z")

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We’ve all heard something wonderful described as “the greatest thing since sliced bread”. My question is, was sliced bread considered a big deal when it was first introduced?

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**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 1999, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sliced-bread/5651/2 "1999-12-29T20:48:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> According to etymologist Christine Ammer, who devotes an entire chapter to bread in “Fruitcakes and Couch Potatoes,” her dandy collection of the stories behind hundreds of food- based figures of speech, “the greatest thing since sliced bread” probably originated in the American armed forces in the middle of the 20th century.

[http://www.greenapple.com/~words1/back-h.html](http://www.greenapple.com/~words1/back-h.html)

The advent of sliced bread must have been a sensation of some kind for it to spawn such a widely used expression. Might try looking at grocery ads in '30s and 40’s newspapers for a definitive answer.