Meanings
- uncountableThe state or characteristic of being proverbial.
The degree of proverbiality, or currency in oral tradition, attained by these exaggerations is difficult to assess.
1968, Shirley L. Arora, “Spanish Proverbial Exaggerations from California”, in Western Folklore, volume 27, number 4, page 2322 more examples
For such a quatrain and couplet as the following it is scarcely hazardous to predict proverbiality:— They eat and drink and scheme and plod And go to church on Sunday; And many are afraid of God And more of Mrs. Grundy. . . . The Cockney met in Middlesex or Surrey Is often cold and always in a hurry.
1874, "English vers de société," The Living Age, vol. 122, no. 1580, p. 718Because other aspects are also seen as contributing to proverbiality—equivocation, authoritativeness, and negotiation of power relations—a text may be proverbial to various degrees.
2005, Rose Marie Beck, “Texts on Textiles: Proverbiality as Characteristic of Equivocal Communication at the East African Coast (Swahili)”, in Journal of African Cultural Studies, volume 17, number 2, page 156
Origin
Cite this entry
proverbiality. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/proverbiality
“proverbiality.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/proverbiality. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “proverbiality,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/proverbiality.
Source: proverbiality on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.