wellerism

plural wellerisms

1. Alternative letter-case form of Wellerism.

   2002, Fionnuala Carson Williams, Wellerisms in Ireland, University of Vermont, page 38, In many cases where a wellerism and a folktale are connected the quote in the wellerism is a set sentence like 'Up and at it!' which is well-known apart from the wellerism.

   2 more examples

   […]without adding the names of those who were widely known to be responsible for the coinage of such wellerisms.

   1994, Journal of Liberal Studies, Volume 4, Issues 1-2, University of Nigeria, page 93

   Dickens used wellerisms already in his letters prior to writing Pickwick Papers.

   1997, George B. Bryan, Wolfgang Mieder, The Proverbial Charles Dickens, Peter Lang, page 27

plural Wellerisms · alternative wellerism

1. A proverb, often a fatuous one, attributed to speaker in a situation.

   An examination of recent literature for Wellerisms might prove productive.

   1958, Midwest Folklore, Volume 8, Indiana University, page 160

   2 more examples

   Examples of Romance Wellerisms are rather infrequent in literature and must be gathered from oral tradition.

   1939, The Modern Languages Forum, Volumes 24-25, Modern Language Association of Southern California, page 69

   The Wellerism, which has its name from Sam Weller's use of many of them in Pickwick Papers, is much older than Dickens.

   1994, Wolfgang Mieder, Alan Dundes, The Wisdom of Many: Essays on the Proverb, University of Wisconsin Press, page 8

   Synonyms: apologetic proverb