- Meaning
- This idiom advises against offering advice or instruction to someone more experienced or knowledgeable, implying that such efforts are presumptuous or unnecessary. It suggests that the recipient, like a grandmother, already possesses superior expertise, often in a specific skill or tradition. The phrase is used in personal or professional contexts to rebuke overconfident novices or to assert one’s own competence, typically with a humorous or mildly scolding tone. It underscores respect for experience and the folly of assuming superiority over elders or experts.
- Origin
- The phrase likely originated in 18th-century England, tied to rural life where egg-sucking (extracting contents by piercing shells) was a known skill. An early version appears in John Ray’s 1670 *English Proverbs*: ‘Teach not thy grandame to suck eggs.’ The proverb reflects a hierarchical society valuing age and experience, with ‘grandmother’ symbolizing wisdom. Jonathan Swift’s 1738 *Polite Conversation* popularized it, and its use persisted in British English, spreading to American English by the 19th century, as seen in Mark Twain’s writings. The phrase’s quirky imagery and cultural emphasis on respecting elders ensured its longevity, though it’s now less common in modern speech.
- Variants
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- Don’t teach your grandma to suck eggs
- Teach not your grandmother to suck eggs
- Don’t teach granny to suck eggs
- Don’t tell your grandmother how to suck eggs
- Examples
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- Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs—I’ve been cooking for decades, kid.
- He tried to advise the veteran mechanic, who snapped, ‘Don’t teach granny to suck eggs!’
- Teach not your grandmother to suck eggs; she’s been gardening longer than you’ve been alive.
- Don’t tell your grandmother how to suck eggs—she wrote the book on project management.
- She laughed and said, ‘Don’t teach your grandma to suck eggs,’ when I offered knitting tips.
- Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs; the professor knows more about physics than you’ll ever learn.
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