The Missing Millions

[terrement]

...got my arse handed to me on a plate.

Pretty certain it is indeed an Americanism.  An (awkward?) combination of "getting your arse handed to you" as in you got your butt kicked so badly in a fair fight it came off and the folks that did the kicking needed to give it back to you, and "on a plate" or sometimes "on a silver platter" is an indication that essentially no real work was required to accomplish it thus throwing further shade on the recipient.

But...

The problem is that the two don't really belong together.  Getting something handed to you on a plate, silver platter, with a golden spoon, etc. is a phrase meant to belittle the recipient as in "being the spoiled brat they are they grew up expecting everything to being given to them rather than having to actually work to achieve it."

I suspect the combination was put together because a fellow Yank thought it sounded cool without really understanding what they were doing.  This abuse of the language is similar to that which sees folks who attended an orientation briefing to be "orientated" rather than "oriented" and folks saying "I could care less about (whatever)" rather than "I couldn't care less."

A great oversimplification comes from a quote by that great Spanish philosopher, Professor I. Montoya, who so eloquently put it: 

"You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means."

[syrinx0]

Inconceivable!

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

The problem is that the two don't really belong together.  Getting something handed to you on a plate, silver platter, with a golden spoon, etc. is a phrase meant to belittle the recipient as in "being the spoiled brat they are they grew up expecting everything to being given to them rather than having to actually work to achieve it."

I suspect the combination was put together because a fellow Yank thought it sounded cool without really understanding what they were doing.  This abuse of the language is similar to that which sees folks who attended an orientation briefing to be "orientated" rather than "oriented" and folks saying "I could care less about (whatever)" rather than "I couldn't care less."


I think you are quite overthinking it.  To have one’s ass handed to them on a plate, means one ‘s posterior was merely cured, dressed, and carved up like a holiday ham with all the trimmings.  the metal content of the plate indicating the recipient being “spoiled” is just the product of your feverish mind.  I suggest a nip of a strong spirit to calm and sooth you.

[Vagabond]

We all have strange and sometimes inexplicable expressions.

Where I grew up there's one "Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs" I don't know if this is common throughout Britain or just a local expression and it means "I'm surprised"
I like to use these expressions in my game reports and provide a wild suggestion as to what they might represent. In that game someone got shot at the top of the stairs, rolled down to the bottom and so surprised they finally understood the term. I know it's not very funny but it amuses me.

I always imagine Americans wandering around the streets handing out arses on a plate and what it would look like.


Tripe, poached in milk.

I really wasn't intending it to be taken seriously.  :  

[syrinx0]

As Hanks Smith would say, "that's a lot of tripe". 

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Many a sad utterance comes from the bung.

[FifteensAway]

Having one's arse handed to one on a platter seems quite serious to me!   


 

Now, on with the story!

[Doug ex-em4]

How about in a sling? That seems precarious

Doug