Proverbs and Idioms

A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) is a simple, concrete, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. Collectively, they form a genre of folklore.

Some proverbs exist in more than one language because people borrow them from languages and cultures similar to theirs. In the West, the Bible (including, but not limited to the Book of Proverbs) and medieval Latin (aided by the work of Erasmus) have played a considerable role in distributing proverbs. However, almost every culture has its own unique proverbs.

More constructively, Mieder has proposed the following definition, “A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed, and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation”.

Proverbs come from a variety of sources. Some are, indeed, the result of people pondering and crafting language, such as some by Confucius, Plato, Baltasar Gracián, etc. Others are taken from such diverse sources as poetry, stories, songs, commercials, advertisements, movies, literature, etc.

 A number of the well known sayings of Jesus, Shakespeare, and others have become proverbs, though they were original at the time of their creation, and many of these sayings were not seen as proverbs when they were first coined. Many proverbs are also based on stories, often the end of a story. For example, the proverb “Who will bell the cat?” is from the end of a story about the mice planning how to be safe from the cat.

Some authors have created proverbs in their writings, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, and some of these proverbs have made their way into broader society. Similarly, C.S. Lewis’ created proverb about a lobster in a pot, from the Chronicles of Narnia, has also gained currency. In cases like this, deliberately created proverbs for fictional societies have become proverbs in real societies.

 In a fictional story set in a real society, the movie Forrest Gump introduced “Life is like a box of chocolates” into broad society. Appeared in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, when the lead character Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks) says “My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Meaning: Life is full of surprises; you never know what will happen next

Interpreting proverbs is often complex, but is best done in a context. Interpreting proverbs from other cultures is much more difficult than interpreting proverbs in one’s own culture.

Even within English-speaking cultures, there is difference of opinion on how to interpret the proverb “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” Some see it as condemning a person that keeps moving, seeing moss as a positive thing, such as profit; others see the proverb as praising people that keep moving and developing, seeing moss as a negative thing, such as negative habits.

In English, for example, we find the following structures (in addition to others):

•Imperative, negative – Don’t beat a dead horse. (Do not show a particular effort that is a waste of time as there will be no outcome

•Imperative, positive – If the shoe fits, wear it! (If a description fits, it is probably the case; if an insult accurately describes you, you must bear it; if you take offence at an insult that was only implicitly directed at you, you admit the insult is true enough to be recognizable)

•Parallel phrases – Garbage in, garbage out. (In computer science, garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is the concept that flawed, or nonsense input data produces nonsense output or “garbage”.)

•Rhetorical question – Is the Pope Catholic? (used to say that the answer to a question you have just been asked is obviously ‘yes‘)

•Declarative sentence – Birds of a feather flock together. “Birds of a feather flock together” has been around in the English language since the mid-1500s. When applied to people, this phrase means that people who are similar to each other or share similar interests tend to spend time with each other.

Many authors have used proverbs in their writings, for a very wide variety of literary genres: epics, novels, poems, short stories.

Probably the most famous user of proverbs in novels is J. R. R. Tolkien in his The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series.

If you can only speak ill of those who showed you mercy, keep silent. Frodo Baggins

Do not slay man or beast needlessly, & not gladly even when it is needed. Faramir

One good turn deserves another. Frodo Baggins

Herman Melville is noted for creating proverbs in Moby Dick and in his poetry.

“Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.”

“Ignorance is the parent of fear.”

 Also, C. S. Lewis created a dozen proverbs

“He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.”

«You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.»

Similarly to other forms of literature, proverbs have also been used as important units of language in drama and films.

Proverbs are often poetic in and of themselves, making them ideally suited for adapting into songs. Proverbs have been used in music from opera to country to hip-hop.

In English the proverb (or rather the beginning of the proverb), If the shoe fits has been used as a title for three albums and five songs. Other English examples of using proverbs in music include Elvis Presley’s Easy come, easy go, Harold Robe’s Never swap horses when you’re crossing a stream, Arthur Gillespie’s Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Bob Dylan’s Like a rolling stone, Cher’s Apples don’t fall far from the tree.

Proverbs are frequently used in advertising, often in slightly modified form. Ford once advertised its Thunderbird with, “One drive is worth a thousand words” (Mieder 2004b: 84). This is doubly interesting since the underlying proverb behind this, “One picture is worth a thousand words,” was originally introduced into the English proverb repertoire in an ad for televisions (Mieder 2004b: 83).

Vanity Fair-April 1989

“A pfennig saved is a pfennig earned.” (Volkswagen)

Almost everyone has heard of this famous expression. Unlike many others, the origin of the idiom ‘a penny saved is a penny earned’ is well known – it comes from Benjamin Franklin’s book, Poor Richard’s Almanack.

There are often proverbs that contradict each other, such as “Look before you leap” and “He who hesitates is lost”, or “Many hands make light work” and “Too many cooks spoil the broth”. These have been labeled “counter proverbs” or “antonymous proverbs”.

When there are such counter proverbs, each can be used in its own appropriate situation, and neither is intended to be a universal truth. Some pairs of proverbs are fully contradictory: “A messy desk is a sign of intelligence” and “A neat desk is a sign of a sick mind”.

Try yourself about proverbs.

Aphorism

An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: aphorismos, denoting ‘delimitation’, ‘distinction’, and ‘definition’) is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. They are often handed down by tradition from generation to generation. The concept is distinct from those of an adage, brocard, chiasmus, epigram, maxim (legal or philosophical), principle, proverb, and saying; some of these concepts are types of aphorism.

Laconic phrase

A laconic phrase or laconism is a concise or terse statement, especially a blunt and elliptical rejoinder. It is named after Laconia, the region of Greece including the city of Sparta, whose ancient inhabitants had a reputation for verbal austerity and were famous for their blunt and often pithy remarks..

Anti Proverb

An anti-proverb or a perverb is the transformation of a standard proverb for humorous effect. Paremiologist Wolfgang Mieder defines them as “parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with traditional proverbial wisdom”. Anti-proverbs are ancient, Aristophanes having used one in his play Peace, substituting κώẟων ‘bell’ (in the unique compound “bellfinch”) for κύων ‘bitch, female dog’, twisting the standard and familiar “The hasty bitch gives birth to blind” to “The hasty bellfinch gives birth to blind””.

Brocard

A brocard is a legal maxim in Latin that is, in a strict sense, derived from traditional legal authorities, even from ancient Rome. The word is a variant of the Latinized name of Burchard of Worms (died AD 1025), Bishop of Worms, Germany, who compiled 20 volumes of Ecclesiastical Rules.

Audi alteram partem or audiatur et altera pars

“Listen to the other side”, or “let the other side be heard as well”. Refers to the idea that one cannot be fairly judged unless the cases for and against them have been heard.

Another proverb quiz for the readers.

References