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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:
Pages in category "English proverbs" The following 31 pages are in this category, out of 31 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. A.
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 ...
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One of the earliest recorded instances of the proverb is in one of Aesop’s Fables, “The Crow and the Pitcher” from the mid 6th century BCE. Plato's Republic says "our need will be the real creator", [5] which Jowett's 1894 translation rendered loosely as "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention."
However, although some English translations use the proverb, [13] what is in the original text is a different, though similar, proverb: "Del dicho al hecho hay gran trecho" (More easily said than done). [14] In English, "many things happen between the cup and the lip" is first found in Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621-1651). [15]
[1]: 239 Similar proverbs in English include "Still waters run deep" and "Empty vessels make the most sound." [2] There have been like proverbs in other languages, for example the Talmudic [1]: 241 proverb in the Aramaic language, "if a word be worth one shekel, silence is worth two", which was translated into English in the 17th century.
A similar proverb in Japanese is 目の寄る所へ玉が寄る, literally "where the eyes go, the eyeballs follow" but with an understood idiomatic meaning of "like draws like", which can be translated into idiomatic English as "birds of a feather flock together", [13] as may the Japanese saying 類は友を呼ぶ, "similar calls a friend." [14]