TheBadguy wrote:
The Hungarian one makes sense.
This idiom does not. Because a Cake is the Most Compromising. You don't eat a whole cake. You cut it into pieces and eat slices. So wouldn't a cake be the symbol and analogy of compromise? Not why you cannot compromise?
Some years back - maybe a couple centuries - a cake did not necessarily refer to a huge fluffy sweet desert, it often referred to a single serving of a flour-dough nature. The word was used more generally, too, as in a, "cake" of soap meaning a small bar as we now call it.
Etymology:
Middle English (denoting a small flat bread roll): of Scandinavian origin; related to Swedish kaka and Danish kage .
Depending on the actual age of the saying we may be imparting too much modern meaning to it.
_________________
“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”
―Carl Sagan
29 Jun 2016, 3:00 pm
