silver spoon

Rooted in 18th century European table-setting customs, when diners would bring their own utensils to the meal. To distinguish themselves from serfs and peasants, members of the land-owning classes often used silver cutlery, whence the term silverware.

• "He was born with a silver spoon and an upturned nose. He didn't lose the latter when he squandered the former."
• "Some folks are born silver spoon in hand / Lord, don't they help themselves, yeah"

• born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
• silvertail
• silver fork novel