Oxford dictionary of proverbs

Contents Abbreviations Introduction Dictionary Bibliography Thematic Index Abbreviations used in the dictionary a Apr. Aug. AV BCP c cent. cf. COD Dec. Dict. Du. ed. EETS esp. et al. Feb. Fr. Ger. Gr. Hist. Ibid. Ital. Jan. L. Mag. Mar. mod. MS(S) Nov. NY Oct. ODEP OED ante (before) April August Authorized Version (of the Bible), 1611 Book of Common Prayer circa (about) century confer (compare) Concise Oxford Dictionary December dictionary (of) Dutch edition Early English Text Society especially et alii (and others) February French German Greek history (of), historical ibidem (in the same place) Italian January Latin Magazine March modern manuscript(s) November New York October Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs Oxford English Dictionary Pt. quot. rev. Sept. Ser. St. STS tr. US vol. part quotation revised September series Saint Scottish Text Society translation (of) United States (of America) volume Introduction Th e Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs provides a general history of proverbs in common use in Britain in the last two hundred years. Some of the proverbs have been in use throughout the English-speaking world for many years; others (especially Scottish proverbs) have spread from regional use to attain general currency in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Proverbs which originated in the United States and in other countries outside the British Isles, such as If you dont like the heat, get out of the kitchen or The apple never falls far from the tree, are included if they are now current in Britain, or if they are particularly prevalent in their region of origin. A proverb is a traditional saying which offers advice or presents a moral in a short and pithy manner. Paradoxically, many phrases which are called proverbial are not proverbs as we now understand the term. We might for instance refer to the proverbial fly on the wall or say that something is as dead as the proverbial dodo, although neither of these phrases alludes to a proverb. The confusion dates from before the eighteenth century, when the term proverb also covered metaphorical phrases, similes, and descriptive epithets, and was used far more loosely than it is today. Nowadays we would normally expect a proverb to be cast in the form of a sentence. Proverbs fall readily into three main categories. Those of the first type take the form of abstract statements expressing general truths, such as Absence makes the heart grow fonder and Nature abhors a vacuum. Proverbs of the second type, which include many of the more colourful examples, use specific observations from everyday experience to make a point which is general; for instance, You can take a horse to water, but you cant make him drink and Dont put all your eggs in one basket. The third type of proverb comprises sayings from particular areas of traditional wisdom and folklore. In this category are found, for example, the health proverbs After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile and Feed a cold and starve a fever. These are frequently classical maxims rendered into the vernacular. In addition, there are traditional country proverbs which relate to husbandry, the seasons, and the weather, such as Red sky at night, shepherds delight; red sky in the morning, shepherds warning and When the wind is in the east, tis neither good for man nor beast. Several of the more common metaphorical phrases are included in the dictionary if they are also encountered in the form of a proverb. The phrases to cut off your nose to spite your face and to throw the baby out with the bathwater, for example, would not ordinarily qualify for inclusion, but have been admitted because they are often found in proverb formDont cut off your nose to spite your face and Dont throw the baby out with the bathwater. Other metaphorical phrases (to win ones spurs, to throw in the towel, etc.), similes (as red as a rose, as dull as ditchwater), and aphoristic quotations (Power grows out of the barrel of a gun) are not included. Nevertheless, proverbs which originated in English as quotations, such as Hope springs eternal or Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, are included when the origins of the quotations are no longer popularly remembered. It is sometimes said that the proverb is going out of fashion, or that it has degenerated into the clichộ. Such views overlook the fact that while the role of the proverb in English literature has changed, its popular currency has remained constant. In medieval times, and even as late as the seventeenth century, proverbs often had the status of universal truths and were used to confirm or refute an argument. Lengthy lists of proverbs were compiled to assist the scholar in debate; and many sayings from Latin, Greek, and the continental languages were drafted into English for this purpose. By the eighteenth century, however, the popularity of the proverb had declined in the work of educated writers, who began to ridicule it as a vehicle for trite, conventional wisdom. In Richardsons Clarissa Harlowe (1748), the hero, Robert Lovelace, is congratulated on his approaching marriage and advised to mend his foolish ways. His uncle writes: It is a long lane that has no turning.Do not despise me for my proverbs. Swift, in the introduction to his Polite Conversation (1738), remarks: The Reader must learn by all means to distinguish between Proverbs, and those polite Speeches which beautify Conversation: . . As to the former, I utterly reject them out of all ingenious Discourse. It is easy to see how proverbs came into disrepute. Seemingly contradictory proverbs can be pairedToo many cooks spoil the broth with Many hands make light work; Absence makes the heart grow fonder with its opposite Out of sight, out of mind. Proverbs could thus become an easy butt for satire in learned circles, and are still sometimes frowned upon by the polished stylist. The proverb has none the less retained its popularity as a homely commentary on life and as a reminder that the wisdom of our ancestors may still be useful to us today. This shift is reflected in the quotations which accompany the entries in the dictionary: recent quotations are often taken from the works of minor writers, or from newspapers and magazines, while earlier quotations are more frequently from the works of major writers. It is a reflection of the proverbs vitality that new ones are continually being created as older ones fall into disuse. Surprisingly, A trouble shared is a trouble halved is not recorded before the twentieth century, and A change is as good as a rest apparently dates only from the last decade of the nineteenth; the popular saying A watched pot never boils first occurs as late as 1848. The computer world has recently given us a potential classic, Garbage in, garbage out, and economics has supplied us with Theres no such thing as a free lunch. Proverbs continueas the early collectors never tired of statingto provide the sauce to relish the meat of ordinary speech. * Proverb dictionaries differ in their manner of ordering material. There are a number of choices open to the compiler. One method favoured in early dictionaries was a straight alphabetical sequence, starting with all proverbs beginning with the word a, such as A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and A stern chase is a long chase, and continuing in this rigid style until z. The problems caused by this system are manifold, the most apparent being the grouping of large numbers of unrelated proverbs under a few words such as a, every, one, and the, forcing the user to engage on a long search for the proverb of his choice. Another option is thematic presentation, whereby proverbs relating to cats, dogs, the Devil, Pride, etc., are each placed together. Despite the many advantages of this method, confusion can occur when there is no clear subject, as when a proverb falls under two or more thematic headings. The manner of arrangement chosen here is that favoured by most major proverb collections of recent years, such as M. P. Tilleys Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1950) and B. J. Whitings Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases (1977). This method combines the advantages of alphabetical and thematic presentation by listing proverbs by the first significant word; thus All cats are grey in the dark may be found at cats, You cannot put an old head on young shoulders at old, while Every picture tells a story occurs at picture. Furthermore, a generous selection of crossreferences is given in the text to assist the reader in cases of difficulty. The first of the three examples above, for example, is crossreferenced at grey and dark, the second at head, young, and shoulder, and the third at every, tell, and story. Variant forms are always noted at the main form when they are important enough to merit inclusion. Illustrative quotations of proverbs are a major feature of the dictionary, as in ODEP. Accordingly, the earliest known example of each proverbs occurrence in literature is always given as the first quotation. Many of the proverbs were probably in common oral use before being recorded in print, but this dictionary clearly must rely upon the evidence of the printed word. When a proverb is known to have existed in another language before its emergence in English, this is indicated in the headnote preceding the quotations. For instance, although Theres many a slip twixt cup and lip is first recorded in English in 1539, its parent form is found in both Greek and Latin, and this information is provided before the sixteenth-century English citation. Similarly, Nothing succeeds like success, first noted in English in 1867, was current in French some decades earlier. It is interesting to note that a high proportion of traditional English proverbs are of foreign origin. Like many of the words in our language, proverbs frequently passed into English from Latin or Greek, through the learned disciplines of medicine or the law, or from a knowledge of the classical authors; or they came into English from French in the years following the Conquest. A number of modern proverbs, such as The opera isnt over till the fat lady sings or The family that prays together stays together, originated in the United States. Predictably, one classic proverb of English origin is the old saying It never rains but it pours. Each entry is provided with several illustrative quotations which show the contexts in which the proverb has been used, up to the present day. The standard form of a proverb often changes