sliced bread
/slaɪst brɛd/
noun phrase
Origin
English
slice + bread — cut piece + food made from flour and water
Overview
Meaning Now
- A loaf of bread that has been pre-cut into uniform pieces by a machine before being packaged for sale.
Literal older meaning
bread which has been cut into slices
Language path
Proto-Indo-European → Proto-Germanic → Old English → Middle English → English
Earliest form
sliced bread
Earliest period
1928
Journey
The phrase became a cultural benchmark for innovation following the success of Otto Rohwedder's invention in 1928, leading to the idiom 'the greatest thing since sliced bread'. Before this, bread was typically bought as a whole loaf and sliced by hand at home.
Evolution
- Old English
brēad
“bit, piece, morsel (later food made of flour)”
Original meaning was a morsel of food.
- Middle English
slice
“a thin, broad piece cut from something”
Probably from Old French 'esclice'.
- 1928
sliced bread
“mechanically portioned loaf”
Coined following the invention of the commercial bread slicer.
Connections
Word parts
slic-
root
to cut
-ed
suffix
past participle marker
bread
root
flour-based food
Related across languages
German
Brot
bread
Dutch
brood
bread
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Related to sliced bread
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.