English and Arabic

Proverbs
According to Oxford
Concise Dictionary Proverb
is a short saying in general
use, held to embody a
general truthwhereas,
Idiom is: a group of words
established by usage and
having a meaning not
deducible from those of the
individual words.

English and Arabic Proverbs

each culture has proverbs that are unique
to it. The saying, "if you want to know a
people, know their proverbs" illustrates
this. For example, saying from various
Native American tribes often reflect their
view of the land as sacred: "Take only
what you need and leave the land as you
found it"

English and Arabic Proverbs

Japanese proverbs often refer
to morals: "An evil deed
remains with the evildoer" and
discretion: "The tongue is like
a sharp knife, it kills without
drawing blood".

English and Arabic Proverbs

Many Mexican proverbs reflect
the thinking and values of rural
people or the average person
on the street and hope is a
common theme: "Hope dies
last of all"

Origins of the English proverbs

To become a proverb, a saying has to be taken
up and assimilated by the common people. In
the process, its origin is forgotten. Once it has
become proverbial, the saying is used as part
of popular wisdom; the user is no longer
interested in its origin. It is safe to assume that
every proverb had an origin in a specific person
or specific situation, but with many of the very
old ones this origin has been completely lost.

Origins of the English proverbs

In general we can assume that proverbs with the
more abstract type of wisdom began life in this
way, proverbs like The end justifies the means
which appears to have taken its bow in a
seventeenth century theological treatise, or the
wish is father to the thought which as far as we
know was first given expression to by Julius
Caesar, or A soft answer turneth away wrath,
which certainly took that precise form from the
Bible.

:Borrowings
Another important source of English
proverbs is these of other languages. Here
again it is difficult to be certain. If a proverb
existed in Latin, French, or Spanish before
it appeared in English, there is no proof
that it was borrowed from the other
language. It may very well be that it
developed concurrently in English but
happened never to have been recorded.

:Biblical proverbs
Proverbs deriving from the Bible are in a sense
another kind of borrowing. In earlier times the
English Bible was so widely read that many of
its sayings have become so much part of
popular wisdom that few users today are aware
of their biblical origin, and the hardiest free
thinker will show no hesitation in drawing upon
them to illustrate a rational point. Nevertheless,
a good many English proverbs come straight
from the Authorized Version:
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

:Other literary sources

Next to the Bible, Shakespeare is
undoubtedly the greatest literary source of
the modern proverb. No one can be sure,
however, which of those attributed to him
are the product of Shakespeare's own
thought and how many were taken over
more or less in the form in which they
existed in the oral tradition around him. A
number of proverbs from Shakespeare have
survived in their original wording e.g.:
Cowards die many times before their deaths.

:Interpretation
How are proverbs to be interpreted? What is their full
meaning?
This is clearly bound up with their use and goes right
to the heart of the problem. The Dutch call proverbs
the daughters of experience, and we have seen how
many of the oldest ones were originally a summary of
what experience had taught people in the
performance of everyday chores. They were, then, at
the outset interpreted literally.
A stitch in time saves nine was the literal truth the
busy housewife had learnt in looking after the family's
clothes.

:The proverb in education

The proverb has had a long and honorable
history in the classroom. As early as the tenth
century proverbs were used in England as a
brighter method of teaching Latin. Many
generations of children through the nineteenth
century and beyond were expected to improve
their minds as well as their writing by having to
copy proverbs out in their copy books. The
commonest proverbs still form part of the
background of every English speaking child, and
this is recognized in the early stages of modern
Education, where many uses are made of them.

:The proverb in education

As a result of their metaphorical application,
many proverbs widely different in wording have
very similar meanings, and this too is a fruitful
source of educational material, as may be seen
by pairing the following:
Once bitten, twice shy.
A burnt child dreads the fire.
Barking dogs seldom bite.
Enough is good as a feast.
Many a little makes a mickle.