sweat of one's brow

English

WOTD – 23 November 2020

Etymology

A reference to Genesis 3:17 and 19 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “And unto Adam he [God] said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, [...] In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground: [...]”, meaning that due to disobedience to God, humans would henceforth have to exert labour for their food, causing their brows or foreheads to perspire.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈswɛt əv wɒnz ˈbɹaʊ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈswɛt əv wʌnz ˈbɹaʊ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ

Noun

sweat of one's brow (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) The effort extended in (often manual) labour, and the value created thereby.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) sweat of one's brows, sweat of one's face

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 285:

     So anyhow Terry brought the three pints Joe was standing and begob the sight nearly left my eyes when I saw him land out a quid. O, as true as I'm telling you. A goodlooking sovereign. / ― And there's more where that came from, says he. / ― Were you robbing the poorbox, Joe? say I? / ― Sweat of my brow, says Joe. 'Twas the prudent member gave me the wheeze.

   • 1991 March 27, Sandra Day O'Connor writing for the Supreme Court of the United States in Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co.:

     Making matters worse, these courts developed a new theory to justify the protection of factual compilations. Known alternatively as "sweat of the brow" or "industrious collection," the underlying notion was that copyright was a reward for the hard work that went into compiling facts.

Related terms

• sweat of the brow

Translations

effort extended in labour, and the value created thereby

• Dutch: in het zweet zijns aanschijns
• Finnish: hiellä ja vaivalla (literally “by the sweat of one's brow”) (adverb), otsa hiessä (adverb)
• French: à la sueur de son front (fr)
• Galician: suor da túa fronte m
• German: im Schweiße seines Angesichts (de)
• Italian: col sudore della fronte
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ens ansikts sved (no)

• Polish: w pocie czoła (pl)
• Portuguese: com o suor do seu rosto
• Russian: в по́те лица́ (ru) (v póte licá), в по́те лица́ своего́ (v póte licá svojevó)
• Swedish: i sitt anletes svett (sv)

Further reading

• “the sweat of somebody's brow” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “by the sweat of your brow” (US) / “by the sweat of your brow” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “by the sweat of one’s brow”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.