Knowles Elizabeth - Little Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs

This new edition of the Little Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs once more brings together a wide range of proverbs and sayings, from the traditional Western maxims of biblical and classical tradition, through proverbs from across the wider world, to expressions of contemporary wisdom from popular culture. The selection made is based on the diversity of real usage: when reaching today for a saying to use in advice or admonition, we happily draw material from a broad range of sources. New additions from todays world include the advice to interviewees to Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have, and the rueful reflection from the world of computing that in matters of online security, There is no patch for stupid. The dictionary is arranged by theme, so that a number of sayings on each topic can be found together. Subjects covered range widely, from Action (The shrimp that falls asleep is swept away by the current) to Cooperation (Cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile wont eat you), and from Friendship (The road to a friends house is never long) to Gardens (A garden is never finished). A piece of advice for Parents may resonate with anyone seeing a son or daughter off on a gap year: Send the beloved child on a journey.

Within each theme, the proverbs and sayings are arranged alphabetically (initial a and the being ignored). There is a keyword index for essential words from the first part of each saying, allowing the reader to trace a saying to its place in its particular theme. One of the pleasures of proverbs is in seeing how, in different parts of the world, the same idea may be expressed. At Optimism and Pessimism , the traditional rueful reflection that If wishes were horses, beggars would ride is now matched by a comment from Senegal: If you had teeth of steel, you could eat iron coconuts. Under Power , the reflection from Africa that When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets hurt is echoed by the Korean saying When whales fight, the shrimps back is broken. At Caution , the traditional English adjuration to Look before you leap is now reinforced by a Chinese saying recommending a different form of careful exploration, Cross the river by feeling the stones.

Be what you want to seem at Behaviour finds an echo in the more recent, Fake it til you make it. Sometimes, of course, different approaches are emphasized. At Ability , the idea that someone not naturally suited to a task will perform poorly is traditionally expressed by the proverb A sow may whistle, though it has an ill mouth for it. The African saying If you can talk, you can sing, and if you can walk, you can dance offers a much more positive approach. Views of Enemies range from The enemy of my enemy is my friend to the warning Do not call a wolf to help you against the dogs. The section on Crises includes two divergent modern contributions: the advice to Keep calm and carry on, and the wryer comment, Never waste a good crisis.

Some new items have come to attention through high profile use. Hillary Clinton, speaking at a fundraising dinner in Arkansas when running for the Democratic nomination, used the saying If you see a turtle on a fencepost, it didnt get there by accident: this has now been added to Causes and Consequences . President Michael Higgins of Ireland, thanking those who had given help to the injured after the collapse of a balcony in Berkeley had resulted in the death and injury of a number of Irish students, quoted the Irish saying, We live in each others shadow. This now appears at Cooperation. At times, a news item may unexpectedly put us in touch with another culture. In October 2015, news from the British bird reserve of Slimbridge about the annual arrival of whooper swans quoted a Russian proverb associating migrating swans with impending wintry weather: The swan brings snow on its bill (this is now at Birds ).

One of the fascinating things about language is that we can never really say with certainty that a maxim which has fallen out of use may not reappear. The traditional saying A wise man turns chance into good fortune seemed to have dropped out of use. However, when in November 2015 President Xi Jinping of China was entertained at a Buckingham Palace state banquet, he included it in his speech as a famous British adage. The proverb is now to be found at Opportunity . An Arab proverb advises, To understand the people, acquaint yourself with their proverbs. Working on this book has again been particularly pleasurable because of the opportunity to observe a multiplicity of views, and to enjoy the vigour and creativity of language.

I hope that once more some of this pleasure will be shared with the reader.