Wiktionary

proverb

See also: pro-verb and Proverbs

English

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Etymology

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From Old French proverbe, from Latin proverbium.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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proverb (plural proverbs)

  1. A commonly used sentence expressing popular wisdom.
    Coordinate terms: epigram, idiom; see also Thesaurus:saying
    Near-synonyms: aphorism, maxim, adage, saw, saying, apothegm, byword, paroemia, sententia (Latin)
    • 2021 [1996], Colin S.K. Walker, Scottish Proverbs, Edinburgh, Scotland: Birlinn, →ISBN:
      The definition of a proverb is no simple matter and has occupied scholars from Ancient Greece until the present day. Lord John Russell defined the proverb as ‘the wisdom of many and the wit of one’. The celebrated Spanish writer Cervantes said that a proverb is ‘a short sentence drawn from long experience’. Generally it is accepted that a proverb is a short, pithy traditional saying, which contains some widely accepted knowledge, or which offers advice or presents a moral. This present volume also contains many phrases and sayings which are not strictly proverbs as we use the term today, although we may still think of them as such. This situation arises because, prior to the eighteenth century it was common for the term to include metaphors, similes, and descriptive epithets. […] The essence of a proverb lies in it being a ‘traditional saying’ i.e. something which has commonly passed from one generation to another by word of mouth. […] In his book On the Lessons in Proverbs (1852), Richard Chevenix Trenchard says that there is one quality of the proverb which is the most essential of all: "… popularity, acceptance and adoption on the part of the people. Without this popularity, without these suffrages and this consent of the many, no saying, however seasoned with salt, however worthy on all these accounts to have become a proverb, however fulfilling all other its conditions, can yet be esteemed as such."
  2. (obsolete) Any commonly used turn of phrase expressing a metaphor, simile, or descriptive epithet. [before 18th c.]
    • 2021 [1996], Colin S.K. Walker, Scottish Proverbs, Edinburgh, Scotland: Birlinn, →ISBN:
      The definition of a proverb is no simple matter and has occupied scholars from Ancient Greece until the present day. Lord John Russell defined the proverb as ‘the wisdom of many and the wit of one’. The celebrated Spanish writer Cervantes said that a proverb is ‘a short sentence drawn from long experience’. Generally it is accepted that a proverb is a short, pithy traditional saying, which contains some widely accepted knowledge, or which offers advice or presents a moral. This present volume also contains many phrases and sayings which are not strictly proverbs as we use the term today, although we may still think of them as such. This situation arises because, prior to the eighteenth century it was common for the term to include metaphors, similes, and descriptive epithets. […] The essence of a proverb lies in it being a ‘traditional saying’ i.e. something which has commonly passed from one generation to another by word of mouth. […] In his book On the Lessons in Proverbs (1852), Richard Chevenix Trenchard says that there is one quality of the proverb which is the most essential of all: "… popularity, acceptance and adoption on the part of the people. Without this popularity, without these suffrages and this consent of the many, no saying, however seasoned with salt, however worthy on all these accounts to have become a proverb, however fulfilling all other its conditions, can yet be esteemed as such."
  3. (obsolete) A striking or paradoxical assertion; an obscure saying; an enigma; a parable.
  4. (obsolete) A familiar illustration; a subject of contemptuous reference.
  5. (obsolete) A drama exemplifying a proverb.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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proverb (third-person singular simple present proverbs, present participle proverbing, simple past and past participle proverbed)

  1. To write or utter proverbs.
  2. To name in, or as, a proverb.
    • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes, lines 203–205:
      Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool / In every street, do they not say, "How well / Are come upon him his deserts?"
  3. To provide with a proverb.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “proverb”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

See also

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References

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin proverbium, French proverbe.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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proverb n (plural proverbe)

  1. saying, proverb, maxim
    Synonyms: parimie, zicală, zicătoare
  2. (dated) proverb (drama exemplifying a proverb)

Declension

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Declension of proverb
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative proverb proverbul proverbe proverbele
genitive-dative proverb proverbului proverbe proverbelor
vocative proverbule proverbelor

Further reading

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