what does cut the mustard mean
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Mustard
Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant (white/yellow mustard, Sinapis alba; brown mustard, Brassica juncea; or black mustard, Brassica nigra).
The whole, ground, cracked, or bruised mustard seeds are mixed with water, vinegar, lemon juice, wine, or other liquids, salt, and often other flavourings and spices, to create a paste or sauce ranging in colour from bright yellow to dark brown. The seed itself has a strong, pungent, and somewhat bitter taste. The taste of mustard condiments ranges from sweet to spicy.
Mustard is commonly paired with meats, vegetables and cheeses, especially as a condiment for sandwiches, hamburgers, corn dogs, and hot dogs. It is also used as an ingredient in many dressings, glazes, sauces, soups, and marinades. As a cream or as individual seeds, mustard is used as a condiment in the cuisine of India and Bangladesh, the Mediterranean, northern and southeastern Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa, making it one of the most popular and widely used spices and condiments in the world.
Where Does The Phrase “Cut The Mustard” Come From?
As with many slang and idiomatic phrases, the origin of cut the mustard isn’t so … clear-cut. But, let’s see if we can’t crack this etymological jar open just a bit.
What does “cut the mustard” mean?
To cut the mustard is “to reach or surpass the desired standard or performance” or more generally “to succeed, to have the ability to do something.” For instance, Beyoncé really cut the mustard in her new song.
Most often, the phrase is used in negative constructions for when something doesn’t live up to expectations or can’t do the job, e.g., The quarterback couldn’t cut the mustard in the playoffs.
When did we start saying “cut the mustard”?
Cut the mustard appears to be an American original. Evidence for the phrase can be found in a Galveston, Texas newspaper in 1891–92.
The author O. Henry—who spent many years in Texas, where he may have picked up the expression—used cut the mustard in his 1907 collection of short stories The Heart of the West: “I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard.”
What is the origin of the word mustard?
The word mustard itself goes back, via French, to the Latin mustum (English must), which was an altogether different substance. It was the juice squeezed from grapes before it was made into wine. Mustard is so named because the condiment was originally made by making mustards seeds into a paste with must.
What does mustard have to do with excellence?
It’s not clear exactly why we say cut the mustard. Some have proposed literal derivations, such as cutting down (harvesting) mustard plants. Others have suggested connections to the phrase pass muster, when a solider gets approval after troops are assembled together for inspection. Evidence for these origins are wanting.
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Clues can be found in earlier mustard expressions. Mustard adds spice, zest, piquancy. This may not be obvious in everyday yellow mustard, but slather some English mustard like Colman’s on your frankfurter … and you’ll be feeling the heat!
1600s
That’s why, as early as the 1600s, hot/strong/keen as mustard was a figure of speech for something extremely powerful, passionate, or enthusiastic. These qualities are very admirable or desirable, so it’s perhaps no surprise that mustard took the jump to connotations of “genuine, superior, excellent.”
Earlier in the 20th century, people even went around calling each other mustard! He’s mustard, for example, means “He’s great.” It’s this idea, of mustard as “excellent” or “great,” that seems to be at work in cut the mustard.
What’s the meaning of the phrase ‘Cut the mustard’?
To succeed; to come up to expectations.
What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Cut the mustard’?
Why cutting mustard was chosen as an example of high quality is unclear. As always in such circumstances, there are no shortage of guesses. Some of these allude to the literal difficulty of cutting mustard in its various forms; for example:
– Mustard seed, which is hard to cut with a knife on account of its being small and shiny.
– Mustard plants, which are tough and stringy and grow densely.
– Culinary mustard, which is cut (diluted) and made more palatable by the addition of vinegar.
– Dried mustard paste, which was reputedly used to coat meat and then dried to form a crust.
There is no evidence to support these derivations and they give the impression of having been retro-fitted in an attempt at plausibility.
More explanation
Another supposed explanation is that the phrase is simply a mistaken version of the military expression ‘cut the muster’. This appears believable at first sight. A little research shows it not to be so. Muster is the calling together of soldiers, sailors, prisoners, to parade for inspection or exercise. To cut muster would be a breach of discipline; hardly a phrase that would have been adopted with the meaning of success or excellence.
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This line of thought appears to have been influenced by confusion with the term ‘pass muster’, which would have the correct meaning, but which could hardly be argued to be the origin of ‘cut the mustard’. The OED, which is the most complete record of the English language, along with all of the other reference works I’ve checked, don’t record ‘cut the muster’ at all. The fact that documented examples of ‘cut the mustard’ are known from many years before any for ‘cut the muster’ would appear to rule out the latter as the origin.
1672
There has been an association between the heat and piquancy of mustard and the zest and energy of people’s behaviour. This dates back to at least 1672, when the term ‘as keen as mustard’ is first recorded. ‘Up to mustard’ or just ‘mustard’ means up to standard in the same way as ‘up to snuff’. ‘Cutting’ has also long been used to mean ‘exhibiting’, as in the phrase ‘cutting a fine figure’. Unless some actual evidence is found for the other proposed explanations, the derivation of ‘cutting the mustard’ as an alternative way of saying ‘exhibiting one’s high standards’ is by far the most likely.
Whatever the coinage, the phrase itself emerged in the USA towards the end of the 19th century. The earliest example in print that I’ve found is from the Kansas newspaper The Ottawa Herald, August, 1889:
He tried to run the post office business under Cleveland’s administration, but “couldn’t cut the mustard.”
The use of quotation marks and the lack of any explanation of the term in that citation imply that ‘cut the mustard’ was already known to Kansas readers and earlier printed examples may yet turn up.
What is the origin of the phrase “doesn’t cut the mustard”?
- WHEN MUSTARD was one of the main crops in East Anglia, it was cut by hand with scythes, in the same way as corn. The crop could grow up to six feet high and this was very arduous work, requiring extremely sharp tools. When blunt they “would not cut the mustard”. All this and everything else you could ever want to know about mustard can be found at the Mustard Museum in Norwich.
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- THE MORRIS Dictionary of Word & Phrase Origins (Harper Collins – 1988), relates the phrase to an earlier expression – “the proper mustard”, meaning “the genuine article”. Around the turn of the century, “to cut the mustard” meant to be “of high quality”, as when O. Henry said of a pretty girl that “she cut the mustard all right”. It is probably mere salaciousness which had me hunting through various lexicographical tomes in search of a connection, however tenuous, with the list of words cited by Jonathon Green in Slang Through the Ages (NTC, 1997), a list which included mustard-and-cress, lawn, grass, lawn, stubble and, most enduringly, bush.
cut the mustard
Meaning:
- to succeed
- to come up to expectations
- to be competent enough
- to be adequate enough to participate or compete
- to be up to the standard
Example:
- My neighbor had applied for the post of architect in a big project, but did not cut the mustard.
- That boy wants to be the captain of the team, but does he cut the mustard?
- I need a bigger knife for these large fruits; this one doesn’t cut the mustard.
- His friends and siblings helped him through this studies, but when it came to working, he couldn’t cut the mustard.
- He was a great player, but he retired sometime ago. We’ll have to see if he still cuts the mustard.
- Though he had practiced hard, on the day of the trials, he was not at his best, so could not cut the mustard.
- When he started his career, he was shy and reserved – no one thought he would cut the mustard; but now, his achievements speaks for themselves.
- I have made this flyer for the event. Do you think it would cut the mustard?
More Examples
The below example uses the expression to say that a certain food item did not pass inspection with high enough ratings.
- Internal memos showed that team officials felt that Sabbath hot-dog sales did not cut the mustard under Jewish law and feared offending observant Jews. –New York Post
In the next example, the writer uses the idiom in the context of a play, which the article writer wants to say isn’t good enough for many audiences.
- It likely won’t cut the mustard for audiences expecting the National to offer shows that feel like they’re directly coming from or going to Broadway, rather than “not bad” productions with a lot of miles on the tires alighting from the outer reaches of the touring circuit. –Washington Post
Summary
This phrase means to be good enough, but it is usually used with negative words such as doesn’t, won’t, isn’t going to, etc., to say that something isn’t good enough.
Origin:
The phrase originated in America in the late 1800s. However, why mustard is used as a reference to high quality is unclear.
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