What is the origin of the phrase different as chalk and cheese?

Question

I've heard it might be something to do with the English revolution but not sure

Answer 1

As different as chalk and cheese is an old proverbial phrase to suggest that two things, superficially alike, are totally different in their qualities. There’s nothing in its history to suggest these two counties had anything to do with it — it sounds like yet another folk etymology to me.

The earliest example — from John Gower’s Confessio Amantis of 1393 — suggests that some shopkeeper was making an illicit profit by adulterating his wares: “And thus ful ofte chalk for cheese he changeth with ful littel cost”. The buyer was surely undiscerning; though some British cheeses are rather chalk-like in appearance, substituting more than a tiny proportion of cheese with chalk wouldn’t fool anybody for very long.

By the sixteenth century, the phrase had become a fixed expression. Hugh Latimer wrote rather sarcastically around 1555: “As though I could not discern cheese from chalk.”

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Answer 2

Chalk And Cheese

Answer 3

To understand this comparison you need to think of a white, young cheese rather than a mature yellow one, and freshly gathered chalk, rather than something prepared for the blackboard. They can look very similar, but their taste and value are very different. The image is an old one. In his Confessio Amantis of about 1383 John Gower criticises the Church for teaching one thing and doing another, saying, 'Lo, how they feignen chalk for cheese' ('pretend that chalk is cheese'), and again, several thousand lines on in this lengthy book, he shows us the origin of the expression when he writes of the greedy man who does not care what he sells as long as he makes money: 'And thus fulofte chalk for cheese He changeth with ful little cost' ('Thus he frequently swaps chalk for cheese at very little cost'). This sense of comparative worth has of course now been lost, but the phrase lives on, no doubt kept in use by English speakers' love of alliteration.

Answer 4

Mac N Cheese

Answer 5

I've never heard of the phrase; must be a new 1 since I graduated in 1973.

Answer 6

I think it's something to do with identical twins. People would say that they are as different as chalk and cheese in their behaviour.

Answer 7

i would go with the earlier explanations, but where did dementri graduate from if he has never heard this. It is one of the most well used sayings in the english language.

Answer 8

Though they can appear similar, they are very different.

Have you ever tried eating chalk?

Answer 9

could be - they are quite different.
anyway - give her the points - she knows all about it!