Land With Your Bum in the Butter

Welcome to A Way with Words.

Hello. This is Rob Gordon calling from Underhill, Vermont.

We’re glad to have you, Rob. What’s on your mind?

Well, it’s an interesting question which arose when I was hiking and I used the expression to land with your bum in the butter. And my hiking companion said, what sort of expression is that? And I said, oh, it’s a common expression which we used at boarding school. And, you know, I’ve been interested in trying to find what it means. I asked my mother many years ago and she said, oh, it was probably it emerged during the Second World War because butter was being rationed. And thus it implies you’ve struck it lucky you’ve gotten something pleasant.

And where was boarding school?

In South Africa. I grew up in Namibia, and there were no English schools after elementary school, so my folks packed me off to boarding school.

Gotcha.

What was happening when you were hiking, and you used the expression to land with your bum in the butter?

We were just talking, and, you know, it’s such a privilege to be able to go hiking. And I said to my friend, boy, we really landed with our bum in the butter. This is such a fantastic place.

Right, exactly.

So it was a lucky situation, maybe more than you deserved.

Oh, absolutely. It was a privilege to go hiking in this place. Although your mother’s idea is a good one, the expression is definitely older than World War II, although we all know that butter was considered a luxury and has been, especially before industrialization when butter making was a lot of work. And people who couldn’t afford it would just use animal fat.

But to land with your bum, B-U-M, in the butter is often expressed differently with different words for your rear end or your derriere or your tush. So you’ll find it a lot of different ways. And it is so interesting that you have this African English speaking experience because there are versions of it in Afrikaans and Dutch and Frisian and German and Norwegian and Danish and French.

So it’s not just English that has versions of this where the Germans might say, besides talking about falling with your arse in the butter, they might say to fall with your face in the butter. And the Dutch might say to fall with your nose in the butter. And the Danish, there’s an old expression where they’d say to come back with butter on your horns, meaning to make a profit on an investment or deal.

I love it.

That’s nice. And the Dutch have an opposite to fall with your bum in the butter, which is to fall into water. And that’s not a desirable situation.

That’s interesting because in Afrikaans, it’s…

So it goes back to the Dutch, I assume.

Yeah, it certainly does. And those Germanic languages, the languages are often an indication of shared culture as well. So I’m quite certain. And, you know, it’s funny when you go back and read old travel guides, people will talk about the butter-heavy cuisine of the German-speaking countries.

Thank you. You’ve really made my day. I’m going to enjoy telling my hiking companions about it. I love digging into proverbs and sayings and expressions like this. It’s one of my favorite things, Rob. So thank you for giving me the chance. It sounds like we’ve all landed with our buns in the butter. We’re just in this big butter bowl together.

Enjoy your hikes, my friend. Have a good time out there.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye.

Take care, Rob.

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