Word Story 5:

As Happy as a Clam!

Meaning: very pleased or content

Similes are a rich source of color in the language and most English speakers will be familiar with hundreds of them (see this list). Larks and dogs are creatures known to be happy but what about a clam? It is not common knowledge as to why clams are happy. For the phrase to have been adopted into the language in the first place such knowledge must have been widespread at one time. Let's see if we can resurrect it.

As happy as a clam

Why would clams be happy? It has been suggested that open clams give the appearance of smiling. The derivation is however more likely to come from the fuller version of the phrase, now rarely heard - 'as happy as a clam at high water'. Hide tide is when clams are free from the attentions of predators; surely the happiest of times in the bivalve mollusk world.

The first record of the 'high water' version is from the Pennsylvania newspaper The Adams Sentinel, August 1844:

"Crispin was soon hammering and whistling away as happy as a clam at high water."

The expression was well-enough known in the USA by the late 1840s for it to have been included in John Russell Bartlett's Dictionary Of Americanisms - A Glossary Of Words And Phrases Usually Regarded As Peculiar To The United States, 1848:

"As happy as a clam at high water," is a very common expression in those parts of the coast of New England where clams are found.

In Context: I am happy as a clam at high water today! How about you?

Think About It: What determines happiness: situation or mindset?