I am writing a story and my character is being scolded for doing something stupid. I have an expression on the tip of my tongue, but part of it keeps evading me! "Have you lost the [thing that keeps evading me] you were born with?" Is it the good senses you were born with? The brain you were born with? I can't remember and it is beginning to drive me crazy... Does anyone know the part I'm missing?
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1We say "sense." Sometimes, it's used like a play on "cents"...like they lost change. – KannE Oct 11 at 21:13
To paraphrase the 1907 American folk story Epaminondas and His Auntie, the saying is, "You don't have the sense you were born with."
I think it is 'the silver spoon in the mouth' that was lost. If they say so, it means you're not lucky.
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We say 'born with a silver spoon in the mouth' of someone from a privileged background, but we don't normally speak of losing the spoon. – Kate Bunting Oct 12 at 8:28
