Idiom #2

This week’s idiom is

“the lion’s share”

This saying means the greater or larger part of something, as in ‘the fat boy ate the lion’s share of the cake.’
Its origin is quite interesting. Until I did some research on this I was unaware that this saying has its origins in an Aesop fable.

Wikipedia explains the fable like this:

In the fable, a lion, fox, jackal, and wolf go hunting, successfully killing a deer. It is divided into four parts; the lion taking the first quarter because he is king of the beasts, the second quarter because he is the arbiter (presumably, of who gets which portions of the deer), the third quarter because of his help in catching the deer, and finally, the fourth quarter for his superior strength.

See also my article “What is an idiom?”

 

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