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Below is an alphabetical list of widely used and repeated proverbial phrases. If known, their origins are noted. A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of conventional saying similar to a proverb and transmitted by oral tradition.
However, unlike the examples given above in English, all of which are anti-proverbs, Tatira's examples are standard proverbs. Where the English proverbs above are meant to make a potential customer smile, in one of the Zimbabwean examples "both the content of the proverb and the fact that it is phrased as a proverb secure the idea of a secure ...
A common meaning of the phrase is that wrongdoings or evil actions are often undertaken with good intentions; or that good intentions, when acted upon, may have bad consequences. [2] An example is the introduction of Asian carp into the United States in the 1970s to control algal blooms in captivity.
The incorrigible nature of fools is further emphasised in Proverbs 27:22, "Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove his folly from him." [5] In Proverbs, the "fool" represents a person lacking moral behavior or discipline, and the "wise" represents someone who behaves carefully and ...
The conventional English translation first appeared in John Heywood's collection of Proverbs in 1546, crediting Erasmus. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable also credits Erasmus, and relates it to other Latin proverbs, "Planta quae saepius transfertus non coalescit" or "Saepius plantata arbor fructum profert exiguum", which mean that a frequently replanted plant or tree yields less fruit ...
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).
When in Rome, do as the Romans do (Medieval Latin: Sī fuerīs Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; sī fuerīs alibī, vīvitō sīcut ibī), often shortened to when in Rome..., is a proverb attributed to Saint Ambrose.
Many Spanish proverbs have a long history of cultural diffusion; there are proverbs, for example, that have their origin traced to Ancient Babylon and that have been transmitted culturally to Spain during the period of classical antiquity; equivalents of the Spanish proverb “En boca cerrada no entran moscas” (Silence is golden, literally "Flies cannot enter a closed mouth") belong to the ...