Meaning
A person's or organisation's main source of income or essential means of living, as in 'tourism is the island's bread and butter'; also used attributively for everyday economic concerns, as in 'bread-and-butter issues'. The literal food-pairing sense is far older and still available. Neutral register; the attributive 'bread-and-butter issues' is a staple of political and business journalism. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Bread and butter was the archetypal basic meal, and 'bread' had stood for sustenance in general since the Middle Ages. Etymonline traces the noun phrase for one's means of living behind a 1685 adjective sense ('pertaining to basic material needs') and dates figurative 'bread' meaning livelihood to 1719; a 1620s adjective even used bread-and-butter, the typical food of children, to mean school-aged. The livelihood idea was robustly present by the late 1600s: 'it's no bread and butter of mine' (none of my business) appears from 1687, was called a common proverb by Swift in 1732, and was recorded by Grose's 1788 Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue alongside 'to quarrel with one's bread and butter', meaning to act against one's own interest.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- bread-and-butter issues
- bread-and-butter money
- quarrel with your bread and butter
- someone's bread and butter
Usage Examples
- Maintenance contracts are the firm's bread and butter, even though the skyline projects get the attention.
- Repair work may be less glamorous than restorations, but it keeps the workshop's bread and butter secure.
- The union warned the carrier against quarrelling with its bread and butter by cutting regional routes.