What Does “Bread And Butter” Mean? When Should You Use It?

What do you get when you combine bread and butter? A delicious and important meal that could get you through the day. But what does the phrase “bread and butter” mean, and how should we use it?

It means a job that earns you a solid income. The activity or product that earns you money for food, health, and rent is your main source of income. One´s means of support or maintenance. It also translates to something that´s ordinary—a routine.

It is a noun, an adjective, and an interjection. Most of its definitions are basically about the means of support for a person and/or company. It is also one of the most common phrases or idioms about money in the English language.

Can I Use The Phrase Today?

It is commonly used in the gaming community, often referred to as R&B or RnB. Here, bread and butter mean the most basic and most used combinations of buttons a gamer can use to succeed in any given game. An easy combo that deals a lot of damage in a fighting game or the basic strategy that is going to help you advance in the story.

In other cases, the phrase is considered to be informal. A simple expression rarely used nowadays. Some people will find it hard to understand its meaning other than the food it’s referring to. It’s been decades since it has been used as popular slang.

It is still a means to talk about social issues, taxpayers, and public policies that affect the masses for politicians and journalists. This is commonly known as a bread and butter issue. Here is a quote from an article in the Washington Times: “On Sunday, several small, multi-ethnic parties will be vying for seats on the city council after campaigning on bread-and-butter issues.”

What Else Does It Mean?

It has also been used to avoid bad luck when people are walking together, and something forces you to separate from them, like an obstacle. Saying these words at the moment of separation protects them from letting something come between them—a sort of incantation to protect the union of two people. A saying to avoid bad luck.

It could also mean something ordinary. An activity you do every day or every week and so on. Something mundane that occupies your week or month.

Where Does The Phrase Come From?

The origin of the phrase dates back to the 1700s when it was first recorded to refer to one’s basic needs. Some say it started in middle age when buttered bread was first introduced as a food course considering poor people could only afford this. In European regions, it was supposed to be a form of payment; you had to earn your bread and butter through labor. After securing this, then you could get something extra for your home.

By the 1800s, the “bread and butter” extended its meaning to one’s income and livelihood. A form of earning enough money that could satisfy a person’s way of living both in the present and the future. The phrase continued to evolve depending on the subject or the person in question.

The American Samuel Gompers, a leader of the working man in the United States in the early 1900s, described the bread and butter issues of payment for workers as benefits, hours, and working conditions. Issues that are still today the most important topic between employers and employees. Before then, unions were more concerned with social issues.

So bread and butter was a basic item for life, and it still is. Getting it was probably the most important task for the people day to day, so bread and butter eventually became a go-to expression for making money. And in labor terms, working with dignity is the most bread and butter of them all.

It has a different meaning depending on its use from basic needs, to income, to someone or something’s most notorious way of existence. The phrase evolved to reference even the routine of someone’s life or the main activity at a company. It even became a magic spell.

This new superstitious expression, only used by a few and in jest, was first documented in 1939 as something kids would say while playing. It is meant to stop something that could come between two people if they’re forced apart by an obstacle, even briefly, from themselves. If they don’t say it then, something bad is supposed to happen to them in the future.

It was used in this regard in the 1930s and 1940s by the Looney Tunes in two separate cartoons when a couple of characters repeated the phrase over and over again while walking close to each other. This form of expression is no longer used. It is a phrase last used by maybe our parents and grandparents. It Is considered an “old saying.”

The Federal Writers Project´s Guide to Kansas was the guidebook that recorded the expression as a form of ritual. This is the only guidebook dedicated to Kansas, by the way.

But When Did Bread And Butter Come Together?

In the 16th century, there was a story that Nicolaus Copernicus used butter on bread so everyone could see which bread was dropped on the floor and got everyone sick. The butter helps notice any type of dirt on the bread. Eventually, the people did eat the good bread and butter. However, this story was discarded a long time ago.

But in 1496 came one of the earliest recordings of bread and butter being together. It was in a book on fly fishing. The book mentions bread and butter as the best food to take with you during the long fishing hours. This is another record of “bread and butter” being an extraordinary source of energy for the human body.

How And When Can I Use It?

“Bread and butter” expresses your most important or only source of income. It is also a person´s or a company’s most known trait. In a successful business, it is the most important activity and/or the one that brings more money. For a person, it could be just a mundane activity that he or she realizes on a daily or weekly basis. These are the main things you need to know when referring to one’s bread and butter.

Examples

When referring to:

A business’ main source of income,

• “Maria´s business is booming. She runs a successful bakery. Her bread and butter is personalized cookies, so If you want anything sweet, make sure you order the cookies”.

A person’s main trait,

• “The explosions in action movies are director Michael Bay’s bread and butter.”

An activity someone often does,

• “My weekend´s bread and butter is walking in the morning. Is the only time I can get to it”

Are There Any Other Ways I Can Express The Same Meaning Of The Phrase?

There are many other ways you could say the phrase “bread and butter.” These are some nouns that can express the same meaning in a more accurate and current way. Some of these words are living, livelihood, sustenance. The most common phrase similar to “bread and butter” is: “make a living.”

Examples

• “I have to make a living so I can pay rent and food and help mom and dad with the mortgage.”
• “Cleaning shoes at the mall every day is my whole livelihood. I get 10 to 15 clients, which is enough for a day of work.”
• “Every day, I wake up early so I can afford my sustenance and also indulge myself any chance I get.”

What Would Be The Opposite Of The Phrase?

Considering that the phrase means working for basic needs like getting paid, food, a roof over your head. The opposite may be words like unnecessary, pointless. Words that refer to non-important issues necessary for living.

Examples

• “Focusing on selling cars is pointless when I make more money fixing them and selling old ones in parts.”
• “It is unnecessary for me to wake up so early when I only need to be in the office by 10 am.”

Conclusion

People have been mixing bread and butter for generations now. At once the main necessity and the most important meal for any person. Today is a regular in any kitchen all over the world. Which makes us realize how far we´ve come and how relevant the real important things stay.

Being a great source of energy, bread and butter became a main course for the masses in the most difficult times. Going out and earning food, mainly bread, is what eventually gives meaning to the phrase “bread and butter” as a means to refer to one´s livelihood. It will always mean the thing that provides you with all that you need to live.