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A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of conventional saying similar to a proverb and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. [1] [2] In 1768, John Ray defined a proverbial phrase as:
When a reader encounters an unknown word or phrase in a text, context clues are anything in the text that helps them understand or guess the meaning of it. It can be synonyms, antonyms, explanations, examples, or familiar word-parts (prefix or suffix). [10] It can be definitions, comparisons, or contrasts. [11]
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
The fixed words of the idiom (in orange) in each case are linked together by dependencies; they form a catena. The material that is outside of the idiom (in normal black script) is not part of the idiom. The following two trees illustrate proverbs: The fixed words of the proverbs (in orange) again form a catena each time.
German – Wenn Schweine fliegen können! is identical with the English saying "when pigs fly", although the older proverb Wenn Schweine Flügel hätten, wäre alles möglich ("if pigs had wings, everything would be possible") is in more common use, often modified on the second part to something impossible, like "if pigs had wings, even your ...
A version of this appears in the Prologue to "The Cook's Tale" (written in 1390) by Geoffrey Chaucer: "Ful ofte in game a sooth I have herd saye!".[2]An early print appearance of the most familiar form of this aphorism was in Volume VII of the Roxburghe Ballads, where it appears in the prologue to The Merry Man's Resolution, or A London Frollick.
("The wise tell us that a nail keeps a shoe, a shoe a horse, a horse a man, a man a castle, that can fight.") [7] For sparinge of a litel cost, Fulofte time a man hath lost, The large cote for the hod. ("For sparing a little cost often a man has lost the large coat for the hood.") [8] [whose translation?] [9]
The abbreviation is not always a short form of the word used in the clue. For example: "Knight" for N (the symbol used in chess notation) Taking this one stage further, the clue word can hint at the word or words to be abbreviated rather than giving the word itself. For example: "About" for C or CA (for "circa"), or RE.