a little bit of bread and no cheese

English

WOTD – 5 June 2022

Etymology

A yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella).

The song of a yellowhammer recorded in Devon, England, U.K.

Onomatopoeic; the bird’s song is thought to resemble the rhythm of the phrase.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ə ˌlɪtl̩ ˈbɪt‿əv ˈbɹɛd‿n̩ nəʊ ˈt͡ʃiːz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ə ˈlɪt(ə)l ˈbɪt‿əv ˈbɹɛd‿n̩ noʊ ˈt͡ʃiz/, [-ˈlɪɾ(ə)l-]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːz
• Hyphenation: a lit‧tle bit of bread and no cheese

Interjection

a little bit of bread and no cheese

1. (British, idiomatic) Used to represent the song of the yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella).
   • 1839 July 13, “British Birds”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume VIII, number 467, London: Charles Knight & Co., […], →OCLC, page 266, column 1:

     The song of the yellow-hammer consists of little more than a monotone, repeated quickly several times, some emphasis being laid on the last note, which is also uttered at greater length. It is almost the only bird whose note is heard in the heat of a summer's day. The cow-boys in some parts of the country have given the following interpretation to the yellow-hammer's song:— "A lit—tle bit of bread, and no cheese."

   • 1862, C[harles] A[lexander] Johns, “The Yellow Hammer. Emberíza citrinella.”, in British Birds in Their Haunts, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge;  […], →OCLC, page 192:

     In Devonshire it [the yellowhammer] goes by the names of "Little-bread-and-no-cheese," and "Gladdy." Of the latter name I do not know the origin; that of the former is clear enough; for if the words "A little bit of bread and no cheese" be chanted rapidly in one note, descending at the word "cheese," the performance, both in matter and style, will bear a close resemblance to the bird's song.

   • 1871–1881, H[enry] E[eles] Dresser, “Emberiza citrinella. (Yellow Bunting.)”, in A History of the Birds of Europe, […], volume IV, London: […] [Taylor and Francis for] the author, […], →OCLC, page 4:

     [A]s twilight sets in, the Yellow Hammer may still be heard, and is perhaps the last bird to give a parting note to the retiring day, with the exception of his congener the Corn-Bunting, who sings till it is quite dusk. Country people imitate the note of the Yellow Hammer by the words, "a little bit of bread and no cheese," the accent on the last word; but sometimes the utterance alters in tone, the request being for a "little bit of bread and no cheese," the last word being dropped and the accent on the penultimate.

   • 1875, [Walter Besant, James Rice], chapter VIII, in With Harp and Crown. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 139:

     [T]he yellowhammer, who also had words as well as tune, sang his refrain of "a little bit of bread and no cheese," with a tremendous emphasis on the no; […]

   • 1896, “the Amateur Angler” [pseudonym; Edward Marston], “Spring and Summer Rambles”, in By Meadow and Stream: Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Places, London: Sampson Law, Marston and Company […], →OCLC, page 38:

     It is delightful to hear the yellowhammer's song—his only song: "A little bit of bread and no c h e e s e."

   • 1911, Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes, London, New York, N.Y.: Frederick Warne & Co., →OCLC, page 21:

     There were several sorts of little birds, twittering different songs. The first one sang—“Who’s bin digging-up my nuts? Who’s-been-digging-up my nuts?” And another sang—“Little bita bread and - no - cheese! Little bit - a - bread an’ - no - cheese!”

   • 1931 May 20, Louis Golding, “A Rosary of Lovely Places”, in The Commonweal: A Weekly Review of Literature, the Arts and Public Affairs, volume XIV, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Calvert Publishing Corporation, →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

     "A little bit of bread and no cheese!" cry the yellowhammers petulantly. But no one takes any notice of them.

   • 1961 January 26, “Notes and Comments: Bird Calls and Beer Drinking in African Language”, in Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 9, number 219, London: IPC Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 197, column 1:

     The Africans, it seems, have the British countryman's habit of making a phonetically similar sentence out of a bird's call. The yellow-hammer, for instance, is supposed to say "a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese". In Zande, the laughing dove calls urugu nolu akpi akpi, which can be translated as "the planter of eleusine [a local cereal] will die".

   • 2015, Nick Baker, “Feathered and Flighty: Birds”, in The Complete Naturalist, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Natural History, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 51:

     In Europe the song of the Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) can be heard, with a little poetic licence, as ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’, the Quail (Coturnix coturnix) as ‘wet my lips’.

Further reading

• yellowhammer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia