Etymology

let them eat cake

Today it means: Used to express a profound disconnect between the elite and the unprivileged or underprivileged, suggesting a callous indifference or detachment to their suffering. Full definition →

French qu'ils mangent de la brioche
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The story

  1. French · calque ofqu'ils mangent de la brioche
  2. French · calque ofqu'ils mangent de la brioche
  3. English todaylet them eat cake

Calque of French qu'ils mangent de la brioche. Incorrectly attributed to the last Queen of France prior to the French Revolution Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), the phrase actually originates from Confessions (Rousseau).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.