The full phrase is "happy as a clam
at high tide."
The phrase originated in the north-eastern states of the USA in the
early 19th century. The earliest citation that I can find is from a
frontier memoir
The Harpe's Head - A Legend of Kentucky, 1833... 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.
Text from The Phrase Finder.
"Happy as a clam in the mud at high water" is what I heard, growing up in Maine.
ReplyDeleteJust a hunch, but I'm guessing you were born after 1848?
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