John Ayto, Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms (2009) has this entry for "rule the roost":
rule the roost be in complete control
The original expression was rule the roast, which was common from the mid 16th century onwards. Although none of the early examples of its use shed any light on its source, we can surmise that it originally referred to someone being the most important person at a banquet or feast. Rule the roost, found from the mid 18th century, has now replaced the earlier version.
I recently came across this occurrence of "rules the roast" in Annabel Gray, Amaranth's Mystery, serialized in Tinsley's Magazine (December 1880):
[A]nd the honest fellow, feebly conscious that he ought to talk, frighten, or beat Nancy into submission, but lacking the moral courage even to remonstrate, sighed, and seated himself in the corner of a Clapham omnibus, with that injured expression of countenance we frequently see imprinted on the features of gentlemen in the corners of omnibuses, whose 'worse' half rules the roast, goes in for brougham-hire, and gives no quarter.
This example suggests that "rule the roast" and "rule the roost" were in competing use many years before the idea of the King Chanticleer routed the idea of the King Carver in the popular imagination.
But while the OED's coverage of "rule the roast" within the entry for roast is quite extensive, I couldn't find any comparable coverage of "rule the roost" within the entry for roost (or the one for rule). I have these questions about the two phrases:
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When and in what publications did instances of "rule the roost" first arise?
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What caused the crossover in popular usage from "rule the roast" to "rule to roost"?
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Is it still the case that "none of the early examples of its use [that is, the use of "rule the roast"] shed any light on its source"?
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Notwithstanding the OED's decision to place its coverage of early instances of "rule the roste" and "rule the rost" under the heading "rule the roast" and to place that heading beneath its first definition of roast ("A piece of roast meat, or anything that is roasted for food ; a part of an animal prepared or intended for roasting"), might those early instances of "roste" and "rost" originally have been intended to signify roost, not roast?
Best Answer
Spelling of English words was consistent with Mark Twain's assertion that anyone who could only spell a given word one way was lacking in intelligence and creativity. It was the publication of Noah Webster's dictionary that led to standardized spelling in America.
ROST is given as a variant spelling for both ROAST and ROOST. And while the human hen rules the home. in the chicken coop, it's the ROOSTER rather than the ROASTER that is the top dog. Ooh, too many animals here. I promise to behave in the future.) Since there are very few lexicographers today who heard the phrase spoken by Englishmen in 1769, the date Oxford English Dictionary gives as the phrase's first appearance in print, we have to rely on inspired detective work and speculation. Freud could never satisfactorily answer "What do women want?" nor can I, and we have the opportunity, denied to lexicographers, to ask questions.
So I refer you to Oxford English Dictionary for the earliest citations. Shakespeare used the ROST form in King Henry VI, Part II
If the words DID cross over, it's because ROOST captured the fancy of the population. The lexicographers don't rule the roost, but rather Joe Sixpack (even though canned beer hadn't been invented at the time.)
Early sources rarely offer new insights, and what's more, there are very few new early sources being manufactured these days. That's not true of antiques in general, so I can only assume that manufacturing antique furniture is more profitable than early sources. Furniture buyers rule the roost!