Food Metaphors

Metaphor: FOOD IS PERSONALITY

In this metaphor, food is used to describe personalities and mental states.
Examples:
• “He is so nutty” or “She is nuts!” to mean crazy or silly.
• “She is going bananas” to mean going crazy.
• “She is as sweet a cherry pie” or “He is as sweet as a candy bar” to mean that a person is very nice or kind.
• “He is as cold as an ice cube” to mean that a person has an unkind, inconsiderate personality.
• “They are as smooth as honey” to mean smooth-talking.

In these metaphors, the qualitative characteristics of the food are being referenced as a personality trait. Honey is very smooth, and therefore can mean “smooth-talking.” Cherry pie and candy bars are very sweet, and can therefore refer to a sweet or kind personality. Nuts and bananas don’t fit this category exactly, but the idea of a nut cracking is similar to a person “cracking” and going insane. A banana is a slightly mushy fruit, and a crazy person’s brain could be thought of as mushy because it has lost the capability to process things in a coherent way.

Metaphor: FOOD IS MEN of MEN ARE FOOD

This metaphor deals with attractiveness of men. There are commonly used metaphors that deal with temperature of food, such as the phrase, “he’s so hot!” There are also others that associate men with food items, most often meat or something sweet.
Examples:
• “He’s a hunk (of meat)” or “He’s a piece of meat.”
• “He looks yummy” or “He looks delicious.”
• “Man candy” or “Eye candy”

When paired with Hines’ idea of women as dessert metaphor, it seems that food can be used to metaphorically describe or refer to both sexes, and people of different ages (children are sometimes called “pumpkin” or “honey bunch”).

Metaphor: FOOD IS MONEY

There are several slang terms that can be used interchangeably (as long as the situation allows) with the word “money.”
Examples:
• “Dough” as in “I’m making a lot of dough at my new job.”
• “Bread”
• “Cheese”
• “Cake”
• “Steak”
• “Cream”
• “Bacon” as in “Bringing home the bacon.”

These metaphors make sense because money is a basic necessity that is required to buy food, which is another basic necessity. “Bringing home the bacon” is probably the most literal example of this, even if bacon is not eaten as commonly as in years past. “Dough” and “bread” are also literal in this sense. “Steak,” “cake,” and “cream” are luxury foods, and would be appropriate to use if someone was making, or had a lot of money, and therefore are less commonly heard. All of these examples can be used in the same way as the first example, “I’m making a lot of dough at my new job,” or “I need to get a hold of some more cheese.”