silver spoon
nounEtymology Rooted in 18th century European table-setting customs, when diners would bring their own utensils to the meal. To distinguish themselves from serfs and peasants, members of the land-owning classes often used silver cutlery, whence the term silverware.
1
Idiomatic Wealth passed down or inherited.
- He was born with a silver spoon and an upturned nose. He didn't lose the latter when he squandered the former.
- Some folks are born silver spoon in hand / Lord, don't they help themselves, yeah1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son”, in Willy and the Poor Boys:
- Related terms
- born with a silver spoon in one's mouth, silvertail, silver fork novel