"The Best of Both Worlds" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms
Channel: Superduper English Idioms
Date: 03/07/2020

0:00 - How to Say, “The best of both worlds…”
0:40 - Examples of “The best of both worlds…”
1:12 - Meaning of “The best of both worlds…”
2:28 - Origin of “The best of both worlds…”
3:48 - More Examples of “The best of both worlds…”
4:30 - Conclusion

“The best of both worlds…”

You might have overheard someone saying that they have, “the best of both worlds,” because they are enjoying two normally distinct advantages at the same time.

On the other hand, you might have heard someone say that you, “can’t have the best of both worlds,” because two things that you want are in opposition.

“This city is amazing. Mountains and ocean, it’s the best of both worlds!” your friend might tell you while visiting Vancouver, Canada.

Perhaps you recently got a job in the federal government and you’re telling your parents, “This job is the best of both worlds; high pay and job security!”

The idiom, “the best of both worlds,” means that you get to enjoy two positive features that don’t normally go together.

For example, let’s say you’re travelling by train and there are two options: the slow but cheap regular train; or the fast but expensive bullet train.

In this case, “cheap” is the best of the regular train, and “fast” is the best of the bullet train.

You might say that you “can’t have the best of both worlds,” because you’d be hard-pressed to find a bullet train ticket for cheap.

However, if there was a special sale on bullet train tickets and you managed to get one for a very low price, you could say, “It’s the best of both worlds; fast and cheap!”

The history of the idiom, “the best of both worlds,” is not entirely clear, but a similar phrase was published in Voltaire’s novella, “Candide”, published 1759.

Voltaire wrote, “the best of all possible worlds,” whereas the idiom as we have it today references only two worlds.

Another idiom, “a win-win situation”, is somewhat related to “the best of both worlds”, but is different.

A “win-win” situation means that both parties (both people) get a good thing, whereas the “best of both worlds” means that one party (one person) gets all the good things.

“This monk fruit-sweetened ice cream is the best of both worlds; sweet, yet sugar free,” you might say to a friend who is trying to eat healthy.

You and a colleague might be discussing countries in which you can work in the high-tech field, “I think Taiwan is a great choice - traditional Eastern culture alongside Western culture - the best of both worlds.”

Perhaps you and your partner disagree on which movie to go see, “We should see this one, it’s a romance that takes place on a moon colony - the best of both worlds - romance and sci-fi!”

There are plenty of situations in which you can enjoy “the best of both worlds,” so hopefully you encounter them more and are able to constantly say, “I have the best of both worlds!”

*The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" was coined by the German polymath Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil), and was merely referenced by Voltaire.

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