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 (French-language collection)
A reliable warning deserves attention, but the confidence placed in its source should not replace checking the situation. Even an experienced observer may sometimes be mistaken.
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A good friend compared with a rare clover gives a valued relationship an image of welcome discovery. The saying appreciates companionship.
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The saying sets professional skill in law beside being a bad neighbour. It warns that an ability admired in one setting may be used unhelpfully in another.
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A caring partnership and wellbeing can matter more than material possessions. The saying’s language of a wife as wealth needs a reading that preserves her independent dignity.
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A happy marriage as a long conversation that feels short pictures sustained companionship as absorbing and welcome. The image values shared engagement.
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The saying puts a hedge between friends to keep the friendship green. It suggests that boundaries can help a relationship remain healthy.
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Clear boundaries can help a friendship remain healthy. Some separation in space, time or responsibilities may prevent small intrusions from becoming repeated resentment.
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A kind word never breaking a mouth gives considerate speech an image of little cost to the speaker. The saying encourages a generous manner.
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Clear boundaries can protect a close relationship by preventing avoidable disagreement. Trust and explicit arrangements can work together instead of being treated as opposing choices.
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Life without love compared with a year without summer gives care and affection an image of missing warmth. The saying expresses the value of connection.
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The saying contrasts a light purse with a heavy heart. It connects little money with the emotional weight of worry.
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A small amount of help valued above much sympathy contrasts practical assistance with expression alone. The saying asks what actually meets a need.
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The saying values a modest home and land that are well used, alongside a wife described as willing. Its praise of sufficiency includes a gendered expectation that needs critical attention.
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The saying compares a life without love to death while still living. It uses a stark image to emphasise the felt absence of affection.
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The saying judges a person through the company they keep. It suggests that chosen associations can influence how someone is perceived.
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Laughing at others and weeping for oneself contrasts responses to another person’s troubles and one’s own. It questions unequal sympathy.
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A man loving a sweetheart most, a wife best and a mother longest gives different relationships contrasting kinds of affection. The saying arranges love through fixed roles.
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A person can provoke a harmful response from something or someone previously familiar and trusted. The dog image directs attention to one’s own contribution to conflict.
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The saying asks someone who has friends to be friendly themselves. It values reciprocal consideration within connection.
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The saying places a married couple outside a simple friend-or-enemy contrast. It suggests that a partnership may involve a relationship not captured by either label alone.
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Good company can make a journey feel easier. The comparison with a horse praises the support of a cheerful companion, without claiming that conversation removes physical limits or replaces needed transport and rest.
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Generous hospitality is pictured as a home without barriers to welcome. The absence of doors exaggerates the openness of a considerate host.
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Money available to use may meet an immediate want when friends cannot or will not provide it. The purse image contrasts a practical resource with reliance on others, without proving that money is more valuable than friendship.
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Desperate circumstances linked with desperate measures describe pressure on someone’s available choices. The saying asks what conditions lie behind a risky response.
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