Proverbs, epigrams, maxims, adages--we all know those short pithy sayings from our childhood. Look before you leap. He who hesitates is lost. A stitch in time saves nine. The early bird gets the worm. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. Measure twice, cut once. To err is human, to forgive divine. This month I would like to take some of these and have fun with them. The idea for this came from a quote I stumbled across recently: "Do not compute the totality of your poultry population until all the manifestations of incubation have been entirely completed." (William Jennings Bryan) I also got ideas from Frank Baehr's Be More Creative Quotation Pages. As an aside, if you have not visited his pages, you should. They are wonderful. |
"Do not compute the totality of your poultry population until all the manifestations of incubation have been entirely completed." |
The early bird catches the worm. | The first proverb is: The member of the genus avis, which bestirs itself prior to others of its kind, will procure the elongated creature of the genus vermis. More prosaically: The early bird catches the worm. In Anguished English, Richard Lederer reports a sign from a mall that read, "The early bird gets the worm! Special shoppers' luncheon before 11 a. m."
Here are some other restatements: If you would like to take this as your motto, the Latin version of the maxim is the title of this article. |
A proverb that is almost too easy to play with is "To err is human, to forgive divine." (Probabley originally from Alexander Pope) A few quick variations are:
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To err is human, to forgive divine. |
He who hesitates is lost. | Another proverb is: the one who vacillates, shows irresolution and is otherwise indecisive, will deviate from his course and go astray. Or, expressed another way: Is dubitat errat. He who hesitates is lost.
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Pip and Jane Baker, a British husband and wife writing team, created a bunch of mixed-up proverbs for a television episode called "Time and the Rani." As confused as these are, many of them still somehow make sense.
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Other Mixed-Up Proverbs |
A few more "malaproverbs" | And to finish up, here are few more "malaproverbs."
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Have I whetted your appetite for this word game? Jump on in, the water's wet...er, fine. Grab a proverb, twist it up, and all the day, you'll have good luck. Have fun, but be careful--this can be habit forming! | Grab a proverb, twist it up, and all the day, you'll have good luck. |