What Is Origin of the Word Gravy and Gravy Train?

The name of a dog food and the subject of at least one blues song by W.C. Handy, gravy train is a slang term which refers to easy money that just keeps on rolling in, with little effort required. Say, for instance, you receive a large inheritance from a mysterious relative, which comes in monthly installments: You are riding the gravy train. Where did we get this curious idiom?

Origin of the Word Gravy

Although gravy, in America, refers to a sauce made from meat drippings, the word is thought to have come from the Old French word grané, which was turned into the Middle English gravé. This may have been the result of someone simply misreading the word grané.

pouring gravy

The modern v was written as u in Medieval manuscripts and could be difficult to distinguish from n. The origin of the word grané, however, is not entirely clear. The usual suggestion is that it derived from the Latin word granum, meaning grain, which became the Old French and the English word grain, with grain, in Old French, meaning spice.

We can only speculate how “spice” came to be translated as a sauce, but perhaps “spiced sauce” makes sense.

In medieval cookbooks, gravé referred to a spicy sauce made with broth, spices, wine, or ale. By the 16th century, the term somehow came to be known as a sauce made from meat drippings.

Origin of ‘Gravy Train’

Regardless of whether you think of gravy as a rich meat-based tomato sauce, or, as do most Americans, as a thick brown sauce made from pan drippings, especially good with biscuits, there is no disputing that we all love our gravy.

In the early twentieth century, the word gravy came to mean “easy money.” This sometimes meant easy profits resulting from just plain old good luck, but it also could refer to easy, but ill-gotten gains, especially through conning your way into it.

Gravy could also refer to any unexpected benefit or poker winnings, and conversely, to a prison sentence, especially a harsh one, as in the phrase “dish out the gravy” to mean deliver a harsh sentence.

When you combine gravy with train, then, you get the idea of easy money that keeps coming in with little effort on your part. It doesn’t stop, just like a train. We could leave it at that and feel pretty certain that we understand the origins of gravy train, but it turns out that the term actually originated with railroad workers of the 1920s, who used it to mean an easy but high-paying run.

Riding the Gravy Train

Pink Floyd used the phrase “riding the gravy train” in their song Have a Cigar, in regards to, ostensibly, record executives or other music industry hanger-ons urging the band to capitalize on the success of a previous hit for “easy money” and, perhaps, to the record company itself “getting a free ride.”

In the 1970s, truck drivers had a similar expression. A gravy hauler was a truck driver who would only drive high-paying runs.

More Food Idioms

What is the Origin of the Baker’s Dozen?

Although it is not as widely practiced today as it once was, you can still find bakeries or bagel shops that, as a matter of...
pouring gravy

What Is Origin of the Word Gravy and Gravy Train?

The name of a dog food and the subject of at least one blues song by W.C. Handy, gravy train is a slang term which refers to...
giving each other the cold shoulder

What does Giving Someone the Cold Shoulder Have to do With Food?

The idiom, to give someone the cold shoulder, meaning to snub them or treat them with aloofness, has been in use at least since the 1800s. If...
hodgepodge soup

Origin of the Term “Hodgepodge”

Meaning of Hodgepodge Hodgepodge has come to mean any mixture of things that are not really meant to go together, but it originally referred to...

Origin of the Phrase ‘Square Meal’

Today, we use the phrase ‘square meal’ to refer to a full, balanced meal. We might say, “Boy, I’m full. That was a square meal”...
cakes of salt

Origin of the Expression ‘Worth Your Salt’

When we say someone is worth their salt, we mean literally that he or she earns whatever reward they get, which usually refers to their paycheck...
The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra

Origin of the Expression “Salad Days”

The idiomatic expression Salad Days originally referred to a period of youthful inexperience, naivety, immaturity, impetuousness, or unskillful exuberance. Like many food-related expressions, the term...
apple pie

Origin of Expression ‘Apple Pie Order’

The expression ‘apple pie order’ is used to refer to something being perfectly neat and tidy. For example, we might say a person who keeps...
corn farmer inspecting corn

Origin of Expression ‘Acknowledge the Corn’

The strange, and somewhat archaic expression acknowledge the corn, which was popular in the nineteenth century seems to mean admitting to a crime. Particularly, it...

You May Be Interested in These Articles