the.com/cookie jar
a transparent vault guarding treasure from the very people who own it.
means A container, often ceramic, for storing cookies — and by extension the metaphorical stash of money, snacks, or secrets that people sneak from, as in being caught with one's hand in the cookie jar.
from The word "cookie" comes from the Dutch "koekje," meaning "little cake," carried to America by Dutch settlers — which is why Americans say cookie while the British kept "biscuit." "Jar" travels a longer road, likely through French "jarre" from Arabic "jarrah," an earthenware vessel. The pairing is plain household English, but the figurative "hand in the cookie jar" — meaning caught stealing — blossomed in 20th-century American speech, the jar being the household's small, tempting, guarded treasure.
- caught phrase
- hand in the cookie jar means caught stealing
- ceramic guards
- some held alarms to foil sneaky children
- andy warhol
- his cookie jar collection sold for over 250000 dollars
- squeaky lids
- loud ceramic tops were a built-in theft alarm
- recession comfort
- sales spiked during the Great Depression as cheap joy
cookie jar at monticello — thomas jefferson's ceramic cookie jar still displayed at his virginia home, early 1800s