The phrase "born with a silver spoon in your mouth" was never about wealth. It came from the plague era, when doctors actually prescribed people to walk around with silver spoons because of what silver did to bacteria. Wealthy families gave silver pacifiers to newborns. The wealthy who ate off silverware daily were protected — and their skin even turned a faint bluish gray from the silver in their system. That is where the term "blue bloods" actually comes from.