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
Immediate needs can affect how satisfied or agreeable someone feels. A full stomach stands for a need met, while fasting stands for going without.
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Even honey becoming tiresome uses something pleasant to show that enjoyment can change with repetition. The saying questions an expectation of endless satisfaction.
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The comparison describes something as readily abundant. Blackberries supply an image of plenty rather than a measured count.
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Poverty distinguished from joy even when it brings laughter separates moments of humour from a difficult material condition. The saying rejects romanticising hardship.
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Experience can include both sorrowful and joyful periods. The saying offers a perspective on change, without promising a regular cycle or telling someone that a difficult feeling must quickly disappear.
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A brief experience can be pleasing without lasting long. The donkey’s gallop gives the short duration a playful image.
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You can use resources generously without treating them carelessly. Enjoyment and freedom in spending can coexist with attention to what is useful, wanted and likely to be wasted.
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Success as its own reward gives achievement an intrinsic satisfaction beyond outside payment or recognition. The saying values accomplishing an aim for its own sake.
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The phrase points to the part of a situation that makes it amusing. It signals a payoff or irony rather than explaining the joke on its own.
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The saying personifies diet, cheerfulness and quiet as the best physicians. It gives everyday conditions the title of doctors in an idealised account of wellbeing.
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Diet, quiet and merriment personified as physicians praise everyday conditions associated with a good life. The saying gives lifestyle and enjoyment a healing image.
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Possession gains practical value through use and enjoyment. The gown image invites someone to appreciate what is available to them, without denying other people’s ownership or suggesting that enjoyment removes responsibilities.
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Being satisfied with enough can offer a kind of richness that possessions alone do not provide. The proverb values contentment without claiming that deprivation is desirable or that material needs do not matter.
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A lizard praising its own leap when nobody else does gives self-recognition a place when outside applause is absent. The saying values acknowledgment beyond public approval.
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The saying calls the longest way round the sweetest way home. It values the experience or result of an indirect route over choosing only the shortest distance.
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The phrase welcomes May as a cheerful month. It gives a period of the year an emotional character rather than a measured description of everyone’s experience.
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More people can make a gathering livelier, while fewer people can mean more of the available food or comforts for each. Company and shared resources create different advantages.
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People of every age can enjoy play or become absorbed by attractive distractions. Age alone does not remove the need to distinguish enjoyment from misplaced attention.
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Peace is described as the only happiness. The saying gives freedom from turmoil an overriding value.
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Every mother having the one beautiful child turns a universal superlative into an image of affectionate perspective. The saying values how care changes an evaluation.
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Even a happy experience may contain something that reduces its pleasure. Alloy pictures an admixture rather than pure joy; the saying describes a familiar mixture, not a proof that untroubled happiness is impossible.
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When richer options are unavailable, a simple provision can be welcome. The saying describes satisfaction shaped by circumstances, without proving that people need no more or should be denied better choices.
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Play pictured as overcoming difficulty and singing or laughter as preventing mischief give enjoyment a positive moral role. The saying values playful engagement.
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The saying compares time spent laughing with time spent in divine company. It gives joy a sacred or elevated value.
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