Humble pie facts for kids

To eat humble pie means to admit you were wrong and say sorry after making a big mistake. It's like having to accept a difficult situation because you messed up.

Humble pie (sometimes called umble pie) is also the name for a type of meat pie that was popular in the Middle Ages.

The Story Behind "Humble Pie"

The saying "eat humble pie" comes from the old food called umble pie. This pie was filled with chopped-up parts of an animal, like the heart, liver, and kidneys. These parts were often called "umbles."

The word "umble" came from the French word "nomble," which meant "deer's insides."

Even though "umbles" (the animal parts) and the word "humble" (meaning modest or not proud) don't come from the same original word, they started to sound similar over time. In the past, people sometimes dropped the "h" sound when they spoke, so "humble" could sound like "umble." Because of this, the phrase "umble pie" slowly changed into "humble pie."

Today, the word "umble" is not used anymore, but the phrase "eat humble pie" is still very common. It's an idiom, which is a phrase where the words together have a different meaning than the individual words.