Happy as a Clam

By Margaret Lucke

Last week I spent four idyllic days on Cape Cod.  My husband's  uncle and cousins were staying at a charming century-old house on the western shore of the Cape and invited us to visit them there. One of the property's best features is a little boathouse that sits over the water, and we spent most of the daylight hours on its deck, soaking up sunshine, reading books, watching kids and dogs splash in the shallows, and waving to passing boats. 

On morning we saw a woman making her way down the beach with a bushel basket. "She's gathering clams," one of us said.

Someone else replied, "I wonder if the clams are as happy as we are right now."

Happy as a clam. Now there's a cliché that has always puzzled me. It's such a common idiom that you'd think there was some truth to it. Yet I never understood what it is about clams that implies they're happy, or have any emotions at all.

People have suggested that the expression came about because a partially open clam gives the appearance of smiling. But frankly I don't see it.

Digging a little (for information, not clams), I found that early versions of the phrase were happy as a clam at high water and happy as a clam in the mud at high tide. In circumstances like that, the clam can't be dug up and eaten, which does seem like a good reason for it to be joyful.

On the other hand, another variation I ran across was happy as a clam in butter sauce. I'm not sure why finding itself bathing in butter sauce would appeal a clam since that's a sure sign it's about to be eaten. But at least it's a delicious way to go.

Happy as a clam first appeared in print in 1830. It quickly became a cliché. In 1848 a magazine called Southern Literary Messenger observed that the expression "is familiar to every one." In that same year the scholar and linguistics enthusiast John Russell Bartlett published his Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States, with happy as a clam as one of the entries.

However, sad as a clam might be equally accurate. Last month The Huffington Post carried an entry by Mark C. Miller, in which he reported on a study of clams done at the Kerala Institute of Undersea Study in India. Claiming that the DNA of their liquid secretions is identical that of human tears, the researcher noted that clams exhibit sure signs of depression, such as immobility, a lack of in interest in their appearance, and no desire to socialize.

Okay, Miller is a humorist and was pulling our legs (there's another cliché for you). But if a clam can be happy, it's just as logical to suppose it also can be miserable.

I'd rather think that if clams have emotions, they're positive ones and happy as a clam makes sense. Still, I can't imagine that any mollusk could be as happy as we were last week, lounging on that sunny deck above the water.

Comments

[Liz]

Clams can be happy around me, as they are truly safe even dripping butter.

[Camille Minichino]

Love the post, Peggy. I'll never look at (or eat) a clam the same way again.

I'm green with envy at your Cape trip!

[Susan C Shea]

Clever riff on the topic, Peggy! Well done. I have happy memories of childhood spent clam digging in that area. Lucky you.

[Mysti]

It was probably a cliche when it hit print, since the saying's been around since the 1630s...

I've read sources that claim it's an Americanism, but we don't have the expression "high water," it's fallen out of use...

This "happy as" phrase always seems to contain an element of mockery or self-contradiction. The phrase we learned in the central valley was "happy as a pig in s*&%," which of course doesn't sound very appetizing.

Like hoi polloi, which is used ironically so often that some people think it means its opposites.

turning a cliche on its head (hey, that's a cliche!) is fun, but I can only think of unworksafe ones :)

[Mysti]

er, "opposite"

[Priscilla]

The Luck of the Irish were with you on your trip (pardon the cliche...)! Great timing and it sounds lovely. As for clams, they can be as happy as they want to be around me since I almost never eat them...but butter doesn't sound bad!

[Margaret Lucke]

Thanks, everyone! Mysti, I appreciate the 1630s date. I knew the phrase was much older than 1830, but I couldn't find a date.

After coming upon "happy as a clam in butter sauce," I was surprised not to see "happy as a clam in chowder." That's the kind of clam that makes me happy. :-)

[Ann]

Thanks, Peggy, for a fun look at a common phrase and another great reference to add to my collection! Checked out Google books and downloaded a free pdf of "Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States" (1848). I'm as happy as a ... oh, never mind. ;-)

[rita lakin]

Peg delightful as always.
Rita

[Cape Cod rental]

Love the post. I love "clam watching" when I am on Cape Cod. Just seeing everyone digging away. Thanks to this post, I will be laughing the next time I am there and watching people go clamming.