"Sour Grapes" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms
Channel: Superduper English Idioms
Date: 10/10/2020

0:00 - How to Say, “Sour grapes.”
0:20 - Examples of “Sour grapes.”
1:08 - Meaning of “Sour grapes.”
1:22 - Origin of “Sour grapes.”
3:32 - More Examples of “Sour grapes.”
4:34 - Conclusion

“Sour grapes.”

You’ve probably heard someone say, “sour grapes,” when another person dislikes or disdains something simply because they cannot have it.

“A new camera is a waste of money anyway,” you might tell your partner. “Is that sour grapes I hear?”

Maybe you start making up excuses for why you wouldn’t want to see Niagara Falls in Canada, “I’m pretty sure it’s wonderful! Don’t have sour grapes, the borders will open again once this is all over…”

“It’s not sour grapes! I changed my mind, I really don’t want to go to the beach anymore,” your teenager might say after it starts raining cats and dogs.

As you can tell, “sour grapes,” means that a person cannot get what they want, so they are pretending not to want it at all.

The idiom, “sour grapes”, originates from Aesop’s fable of “The Fox and the Grapes”, where a fox cannot reach some high up grapes, so concludes that the grapes must be sour anyway.

“Sour grapes” is actually a good method for dealing with disappointment, because if you can’t get something, it’s better to convince yourself that you don’t want it rather than brood over it.

The uncomfortable feeling that we get when we do something contrary to our beliefs is called “cognitive dissonance”, and since we may not be able to change our actions…

… we instead change our beliefs, desires, opinions to better reflect the actions that we took or are taking.

If you are unable to get that which you desire, instead of letting yourself yearn or long for it, you could convince yourself that you don’t desire it. This is “sour grapes”.

“Sour grapes” is used almost as an insult - as if you are “sour” because you cannot have what you want - but it is in fact a great method to dissipate the cognitive dissonance you feel.

If you’ve tried everything in your power to get some high up grapes, but simply cannot; it is better to move on with your life by convincing yourself that the grapes are sour and you wouldn’t want them anyway!

“Giving up on trying to find the perfect partner is not sour grapes! I’ve simply decided to focus my energy elsewhere and if it happens, it happens, but if not…” you might be telling your friend who is happily married.

Perhaps your favourite houseplant is no longer available because it’s become a social media superstar, “Sour grapes, maybe… but I really don’t want to seem like I’m just jumping on the bandwagon.”

“I’m too old to worry about getting rich. It’s not sour grapes, I have just realized that there are more important things in life,” your grandpa might be telling you.

Accordingly, the next time you see that someone wants something, but cannot have it and so turns their desire into disdain, you can point out that it’s “sour grapes”.

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