Bodenheim slang of the day: Cake-eater
February 12, 2010
Cake-eater: An effeminate fellow; sissy; (specif.) an effete young man who attends tea parties or the like (as defined by the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang)
A small table to their left was graced by two cake-eaters and the girl whom they were trying to make. Dapper loafers through the early twenties, who would soon be swinging first over a girl indifferent to both of them. She nodded her head slightly, in the direction of a hard-faced buck sitting with Diana. Hard-face was an old flame who had previously turned her down but was willing to make her happy for another night. When she had rid herself of the other two, outside, she would return to Diana's and meet him.(from Naked on Roller Skates by Maxwell Bodenheim)
2 Comments:
Cf. Italian-Canadian English mangiacake (often two words), a disparaging epithet for WASPs, as the Wonder Bread they preferred seems cakelike to Italians.
(We have a number of useful ethnic slurs that impoverished American English lacks – Gino/Gina [superior to male-only Guido], Porkchop].)
I recall a comment (I believe of Cyril Connolly's) describing Gide's marriage as "the pious cake-eater's fraud." It's always stuck in my head and now I see it's probably because "pie" and "cake" were in such close proximity.
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