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
The saying asks people to treat others as they would wish to be treated. It uses one’s own desire for consideration as a starting point for conduct.
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A dog’s wagging tail contrasted with its tongue values friendly conduct over excessive talk. The animal image praises approachable behaviour.
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The saying warns against biting the hand that feeds someone. It asks for care toward a source of support.
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The saying pictures biting the hand that feeds someone. It criticises harming a person on whom one depends for provision.
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The saying asks for reciprocity between what one expects and what one can promise. It questions demanding commitments one would not make oneself.
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Getting on a high horse pictures adopting a superior position toward others. The saying criticises a haughty or self-important manner.
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Walking in another person’s boots asks for attention to their circumstances before judging them. It uses shared experience as an image of perspective.
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An evening avoided where a night cannot be spent links a brief stay with the welcome or suitability of a longer one. The saying questions entering a place where continued presence may not be possible.
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The supplied gloss reads bringing a harp to a party as repeatedly returning to the same subject. Under that reading, the advice concerns repetitive conversation.
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Telling tales out of school pictures carrying information beyond the setting where it belongs. The supplied reading warns against disclosing confidential or damaging private matters.
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A secret passed from one friend to another pictures information travelling beyond the first trusted recipient. The saying warns that personal confidence does not automatically limit disclosure.
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Washing dirty linen in public uses private household work as an image for exposing intimate disputes. It expresses a preference for discretion about personal matters.
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A ready meal and ripe time for speech compare action with suitable conditions. The saying asks that speaking fit the occasion.
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A benefit may fade from attention once its immediate need has passed. Remember helpful actions without assuming that gratitude requires permanent obligation or repayment for every kindness.
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Even the devil needing a friend extends the value of companionship to a figure usually treated as hostile. The saying exaggerates how widely a need for connection may reach.
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A street dog having lucky days offers a hopeful image of occasional good fortune despite an unpromising position. The saying gives improvement a place even at the margins.
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Two things or people grouped together do not necessarily make a suitable partnership. Couple and pair distinguish number from fit, without proving that differences prevent cooperation or that one person has less value than another.
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The saying imagines a suitable partner for everyone. It can offer hope about companionship, but its promise is not guaranteed, and its paired male-and-female labels should not prescribe identity, require a relationship or override anyone’s freely chosen interest.
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The saying combines individual self-interest with a shared appeal to God. It can express a tense situation in which people look after themselves, but it does not justify abandoning others or suggest that shared needs can be left entirely to divine care.
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People have different preferences, dispositions and ways of responding. The saying encourages allowance for that variety, without making every preference a right to ignore others or treating someone’s current habits as unchangeable.
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Preferences can differ in ways that another person finds surprising. The comic cow-kissing example makes that variety conspicuous, without claiming every preferred action is harmless or that preference settles a shared disagreement.
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The saying claims outsiders can tame a shrew more easily than the person living with her. It contrasts detached advice with the difficulty of an ongoing relationship through a derogatory gendered label.
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Being everyone’s companion but nobody’s friend contrasts widespread social contact with a lack of depth. The saying questions connection measured by breadth alone.
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Excessive praise compared with an insult questions admiration that loses proportion or credibility. The saying recognises that an apparent compliment can feel demeaning.
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