humble pie

The expression derives from umble pie, a dish of deer offal considered inferior food in the Middle Ages. The crust contained the heart, liver, and entrails of the animal, a composition that ensured the pie was served exclusively to those of lower social standing. While the nobility consumed the choice cuts of venison, the servants were expected to make do with the umbles.

Although the culinary term and the adjective humble are etymologically unrelated, the similarity in sound encouraged a persistent orthographic confusion. Each word appeared both with and without the initial h from the end of the Middle Ages until the 19th century. By the time the spelling stabilised, the phonetic coincidence had fixed the act of eating the offal pie as a metaphor for the experience of social or moral humiliation.