Revenge is a dish best served cold

During Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Khan quoted an allegedly Klingon proverb Revenge is a dish best served cold. He did not speak in Klingon though. The first Klingon translation appeared on page 133 of The Klingon Way.

Analysis

The Klingon phrase in TKW is bortaS bIr jablu'DI' reH QaQqu' nay'. It is usually translated with Revenge is a dish best served cold. Literally translated, the individual words mean:

Klingon	English	Details
bortaS	revenge	noun
bIr	cold	adjective
jablu'DI'	when somebody serves	jab = serve, -lu' = indefinite subject, -DI' = when, as soon as
reH	always	adverbial
QaQqu'	it is very good (QaQ = good, -qu' intensifies the word)	-
nay'	the dish	-

So, literally translated, it means: When someone serves cold revenge, the dish is always very good.

Appearance

In Klingon

The phrase has been used on several T-Shirts and also during one episode of The Big Bang Theory:

• A T-shirt
• T-Shirt with Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, episode "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" (S3E05)

Elsewhere

• In the 2003 movie "Kill Bill", the phrase was displayed in English before the beginning of the movie, labeled as an "Old Klingon proverb".
• In episode 17 of season 2, of the series "Riverdale" (2018) on Netflix, (at 41:18) Cheryl Blossom explains "Well, Toni, if revenge is a dish best served cold [...]" (1)

History

The phrase was first mentioned as a "Klingon proverb" 1982 in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but it was not said in Klingon there. Later, during the 2003 movie "Kill Bill", the phrase was displayed in English before the beginning of the movie, labeled as an "Old Klingon proverb". In reality, the phrase is much older. There exists a 1971 western movie with the italian title "La vendetta e' un piatto che si serve freddo", meaning exactly the same phrase. The phrase also appeared in the western movie "Death Rides a Horse" (1967), and in the novel "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo (1969).

Rumors say that the phrase has been used in the 1782 book "Les Liaisons dangereuses" (Dangerous Liaisons) but that is not true. The first known appearance of that expression was in 1845 in a book by Josephe Eugène Sue, "Mathilde", originally in French "La vengeance est un plat qui se mange très bien froide."

References

1 : http://riverdale.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_Thirty:_The_Noose_Tightens