proverb · Words worth keeping
More have been drowned in wine than water.
More have been drowned in wine than water.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying claims wine has drowned more people than water. It uses drowning as a forceful comparison for harm associated with drinking.
What the words are saying
More makes the warning appear statistical, but the verse supplies no count or evidence. A responsible interpretation identifies the exaggeration or claimed comparison without publishing it as a mortality statistic. The useful reading concerns the force of the image and the need to distinguish rhetorical quantities from measured ones.
Everyday example
A reader recognises the warning while asking for evidence before repeating the numerical comparison as fact.
When to use it
Use it to examine a dramatic warning with an unsupported quantity.
What it does not mean
The statement is not a verified mortality comparison or drinking guidance.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases
Entry 1792 · Wine
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- English