English Proverbs And Proverbial Phrases

Excerpt from English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases That popular phraseology which has subsisted among us time out of mind, and which may be said to constitute a kind of common speech, presents to our notice a theme peculiarly abounding in curiosity, interest and social illustration. The Rev. John Ward, Vicar of stratford-on-avon in the time of Charles II., observes in his diary Six things required to a proverb; 1. Short; 2. Plain; 3. Common; 4. Figurative; 5. Ancient; 6. True. If we allow this to be a fair criterion or standard, it follows that in the existing collections are a very great number of articles which have no real title to a place there; and such is, indeed, the actual fact. In Dr. Fuller's Gnomologia, 1732, there are 6496 sayings; but of these a considerable proportion would have to be eliminated to satisfy Mr. Ward's postulates; for there are, assuredly, many which do not fall under any of those heads. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

p.B. J. Whiting savors proverbial expressions and has devoted much of his lifetime to studying and collecting them; no one knows more about British and American proverbs than he. The present volume, based upon writings in British North America from the earliest settlements to approximately 1820, complements his and Archer Taylor's Dictionary of American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, 1820-1880. It differs from that work and from other standard collections, however, in that its sources are primarily not "literary" but instead workaday writings - letters, diaries, histories, travel books, political pamphlets, and the like. The authors represent a wide cross-section of the populace, from scholars and statesmen to farmers, shopkeepers, sailors, and hunters. Mr. Whiting has combed all the obvious sources and hundreds of out-of-the-way publications of local journals and historical societies. This body of material, "because it covers territory that has not been extracted and compiled in a scholarly way before, can justly be said to be the most valuable of all those that Whiting has brought together," according to Albert B. Friedman. "What makes the work important is Whiting's authority: a proverb or proverbial phrase is what BJW thinks is a proverb or proverbial phrase. There is no objective operative definition of any value, no divining rod; his tact, 'feel, ' experience, determine what's the real thing and what is spurious."

Long before writing and books were in common use, proverbs were the principal means of imparting instruction. In modern times there is not so much need to apply these old sayings as a means of educating the people, but they are still constantly met with in the newspapers and in general literature, and they are rightly considered as "The texts of common life." The late Earl Russell very aptly described a proverb as "The wisdom of many and the wit of one." We value proverbs chiefly as moral maxims teaching some practical lesson set forth in concise, pithy sentences, which are fixed in the memory without effort, and retained without being burdensome. They have been found useful for guidance in almost every condition of life; but, on the other hand, it is quite true that many dangerous precepts have been propounded in proverbs, and some of the older ones gave such questionable advice, or were couched in such objectionable language, that they have been very properly omitted from every collection intended, as this is, for general use. Other old proverbs have become obsolete, and as their meaning is now obscure, they have not been included in the Dictionary.

Excerpt from English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases: Collected From the Most Authentic Sources, Alphabetically Arranged and Annotated Worcester, in his Dictionary. Explains a proverb to be a common and pithy expression, which embodies some moral precept or admitted truth. I do not aspire to turn leaicegrapher; but I cannot forbear to record my belief that Worcester's description is scarcely exhaustive. If I had to define the thing myself, I confas that I would rather set a proverb down as an expression or combination of words conveying a truth to the mind by a figure. Phrasis, antithesis, or hyperbole. To put the matter did - er ently, it seems to me essential that a proverb should have a figurative sense, an inner sense, or an approximate sense. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.