DJVOL googles

I've really been wanting to use the phrase "those were our salad days" but i wasn't sure i was gonna do it right. soooooo i googled it. now I know.


"Salad days" is an idiomatic expression, referring to a youthful time, accompanied by the
inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a
young person. More modern use, especially in the United States, refers to a person's heyday
when somebody was at the peak of his/her abilities—not necessarily in that person's youth.

History


The phrase was coined in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in 1606. In the speech at the
end of Act One in which Cleopatra is regretting her youthful dalliances with Julius Caesar she
says:

"...My salad days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood..."

The phrase became popular only from the middle of the 19th century, coming to mean “a
period of youthful inexperience or indiscretion." The metaphor comes from Cleopatra's use of
the word 'green' — presumably meaning someone youthful, inexperienced, or immature.