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.
[QUOTE=Yu Lin]
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).
[/QUOTE]
Did your friend happen to mention where she got the information about the original phrase?
[QUOTE=Yu Lin]
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”.
[/QUOTE]
But it isn’t. Show me where this is the modern form.