FYI -
Some years ago I had a friend who researched sayings like this, and what I heard from her went as follows:
The modern form of the saying is “starve a cold and feed a fever”.
The original version of this saying was “if you starve a cold, you will be feeding a fever”.
In other words, if you do not get proper nutrition when you have a cold, then you could get even more sick (will be feeding a fever).
Hi, Yu Lin. The custom here when starting a thread on a column is to include a link. Like this:
Is it “feed a cold, starve a fever” or vice versa? And should you?
Personally, I always thought the point was a fever makes it hard to keep anything down, so it’s better to just starve it. But I probably made that explanation up out of my own imagination.
I’ve always thought the phrase was more metaphorical. “Starve a cold” means to stay warm, and “feed a fever” means the same.
I suppose trying to stay warm during a fever might not always be the best advice, though.
Did your friend happen to mention where she got the information about the original phrase?
But it isn’t. Show me where this is the modern form.