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Origin of Take the Cake

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Sources list two possible origins for this expression. The first possibility is quite old, and puts the origin at around the year 400 B.C. Ancient Greeks used this expression to show victory or prize winning. Apparently, in ancient Greece, a cake was awarded to whoever best stayed awake during the all-night party. The expression was later expanded to include any prize winning. In 411 B.C., the playwright Aristophanes wrote “In craftiness we take the cake.” The phrase was revived, possibly independently from the original phrase, in the 1800s when referring to the practice of cakewalking. In a cakewalk, winners were awarded a cake. Participating couples, usually African Americans, walked around and around a cake, and the couple that was deemed most graceful was awarded the cake.