phrases - You cannot "eat your cake and have it" or "have your cake and eat it"?

Which is it?

You cannot eat your cake and have it, too.

meaning you can have it or you can eat it, but once it's gone there's no cake left to eat.

You cannot have your cake and eat it, too.

meaning, as I understand it, you actually own the cake, so you can eat it if you want to.

A brief Google search suggests the second option is common usage (though I would argue misusage.)

Answer

There is absolutely no difference in meaning between the two orderings:

You cannot have your cake and eat it, too

You cannot eat your cake and have it, too

The meaning is simply that the cake cannot be both eaten and saved for later. The two options are mutually exclusive.

Neither are misworded, misordered or misused.

Comments

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