proverb

plural proverbs

1. A commonly used sentence expressing popular wisdom.

   Near-synonyms: aphorism, maxim, adage, saw, saying, apothegm, byword, paroemia, sententia (Latin)

   2 more examples

   As a Yiddish proverb has it: Badarf men hunik ven tsuker iz zis? Who needs honey when sugar is sweet?

   2007 January 26, Stefan Kanfer, “In Lower Manhattan, the Echo of the Yiddish Stage Endures”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 31 Mar 2019

   The definition of a proverb is no simple matter and has occupied scholars from Ancient Greece until the present day. Lord John Russell defined the proverb as ‘the wisdom of many and the wit of one’. The celebrated Spanish writer Cervantes said that a proverb is ‘a short sentence drawn from long experience’. Generally it is accepted that a proverb is a short, pithy traditional saying, which contains some widely accepted knowledge, or which offers advice or presents a moral. This present volume also contains many phrases and sayings which are not strictly proverbs as we use the term today, although we may still think of them as such. This situation arises because, prior to the eighteenth century it was common for the term to include metaphors, similes, and descriptive epithets. […] The essence of a proverb lies in it being a ‘traditional saying’ i.e. something which has commonly passed from one generation to another by word of mouth. […] In his book On the Lessons in Proverbs (1852), Richard Chevenix Trenchard says that there is one quality of the proverb which is the most essential of all: "… popularity, acceptance and adoption on the part of the people. Without this popularity, without these suffrages and this consent of the many, no saying, however seasoned with salt, however worthy on all these accounts to have become a proverb, however fulfilling all other its conditions, can yet be esteemed as such."

   2021 [1996], Colin S.K. Walker, Scottish Proverbs, Edinburgh, Scotland: Birlinn, →ISBN

   Synonyms: aphorism, maxim, adage, saw, saying, apothegm, byword, paroemia

2. obsoleteAny commonly used turn of phrase expressing a metaphor, simile, or descriptive epithet.First known use before 18th c.

   1 more example

   The definition of a proverb is no simple matter and has occupied scholars from Ancient Greece until the present day. Lord John Russell defined the proverb as ‘the wisdom of many and the wit of one’. The celebrated Spanish writer Cervantes said that a proverb is ‘a short sentence drawn from long experience’. Generally it is accepted that a proverb is a short, pithy traditional saying, which contains some widely accepted knowledge, or which offers advice or presents a moral. This present volume also contains many phrases and sayings which are not strictly proverbs as we use the term today, although we may still think of them as such. This situation arises because, prior to the eighteenth century it was common for the term to include metaphors, similes, and descriptive epithets. […] The essence of a proverb lies in it being a ‘traditional saying’ i.e. something which has commonly passed from one generation to another by word of mouth. […] In his book On the Lessons in Proverbs (1852), Richard Chevenix Trenchard says that there is one quality of the proverb which is the most essential of all: "… popularity, acceptance and adoption on the part of the people. Without this popularity, without these suffrages and this consent of the many, no saying, however seasoned with salt, however worthy on all these accounts to have become a proverb, however fulfilling all other its conditions, can yet be esteemed as such."

   2021 [1996], Colin S.K. Walker, Scottish Proverbs, Edinburgh, Scotland: Birlinn, →ISBN

3. obsoleteA striking or paradoxical assertion; an obscure saying; an enigma; a parable.

   His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 16:29

4. obsoleteA familiar illustration; a subject of contemptuous reference.

   Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by word, among all nations.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 28:37

5. obsoleteA drama exemplifying a proverb.

present singular third person proverbs · participle present proverbing · participle past proverbed · past proverbed

1. To write or utter proverbs.
2. To name in, or as, a proverb.

   Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool / In every street, do they not say, "How well / Are come upon him his deserts?"

   1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes, lines 203–205

3. To provide with a proverb.

   I am proverbed with a grandsire phrase.

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]