Words worth understanding
Start with the thought in plain English. Then explore the imagery, a practical example, when to use it, and what the saying does not mean.
4,000 entries with editorial explanations. The wider collection also contains entries still awaiting an individual interpretation.
proverb · Traditional
Showing off knowledge as proclaiming ignorance contrasts an impressive display with real understanding. The saying criticises boastful presentation.
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The saying predicts Sunday sorrow for someone who sings on Friday. It turns enjoyment on one day into an omen about another.
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Encountering unfamiliar places and ways of life can broaden understanding. The saying values experience beyond familiar surroundings, without guaranteeing insight from distance or making travel the only route to learning.
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Taking full responsibility before learning what a task requires can leave important gaps in judgement. The master-and-scholar comparison encourages useful guidance and feedback, while allowing independent learning and questioning advice.
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Always knowing best preventing learning contrasts fixed certainty with openness to revision. The saying questions confidence that leaves no room for new information.
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Asking a question is contrasted with remaining uninformed through silence. The saying treats brief embarrassment as preferable to an enduring gap in understanding.
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A concealed disease contrasted with an expected cure links disclosure with the possibility of receiving help. The saying questions an expectation that an unknown problem will be addressed.
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Digging too deeply for a fish and finding a serpent pictures pursuit uncovering an unwanted result. The saying warns that extending an action can change what it brings back.
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Knowing much paired with speaking little gives restraint an admired relation to understanding. The saying values consideration rather than volume of expression.
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The saying associates knowing nothing with doubting nothing. It suggests that limited understanding may leave someone unaware of reasons for uncertainty.
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Understanding music equated with understanding the universe gives artistic insight an expansive significance. The saying values music as a way of experiencing a larger order.
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The expression describes attention to an extremely fine distinction. It may criticise needless precision, but a small difference can still matter when the task depends on it; the issue is whether the distinction serves a purpose.
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Eating when full compared with digging one’s grave through teeth warns about excess using a stark death image. The saying gives appetite a consequential frame.
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Knowing nothing paired with neither doubt nor fear connects limited awareness with unexamined certainty. The saying warns that ignorance may hide reasons for caution.
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People or activity can be noticed in places that appear sheltered, and speech can travel beyond its intended audience. The eyes-and-ears image cautions against assuming surroundings make an action or conversation completely private.
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The saying urges full disclosure to a minister, physician and lawyer. It gives three trusted roles a shared expectation of being told relevant truths.
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The saying makes someone’s bark louder than their bite. As a human analogy, it contrasts forceful threats with less forceful action.
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The saying makes someone’s eyes bigger than their belly. In the supplied reading, the desired amount exceeds what they can eat.
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Hope and expectation called a fool’s earnings contrast imagined gains with something actually received. The saying questions reliance on anticipation alone.
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Hope deluding a person labelled foolish warns that expectation can be mistaken for a reliable outcome. The saying questions reliance on anticipation.
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The speaker claims to see as far into a millstone as the picker. The comparison presents equal insight into something whose interior is not readily visible.
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The saying ranks hearing, seeing and doing through forgetting, knowing and understanding. It gives participation the strongest place in its account of learning.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
Experience of your own situation can help you imagine another person’s circumstances. Treat that analogy as a starting point for questions rather than proof of sameness.
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The speaker credits success to respectfully hearing excellent advice and then doing its opposite. The contradiction gives independent judgment a provocative form.
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