Today we’re returning to our series of occasional blogs spread over the year and looking at British proverbs, their meanings and origins.
A proverb is a short, pithy saying that neatly expresses a commonly held truth or piece of wisdom. Proverbs have proved so useful in language that they appear in most cultures, often playing an important role in religion or spiritual teachings, as well as everyday life.
A great deal of common sense and worldly experience is encapsulated in proverbs. Today we’ll take a look at some beginning with the letter ‘i’:
It ain’t over till the fat lady sings: This proverb means that nothing is finalised or irreversible until the final act has been played out. For example, even is your favourite team is 2-0 down with 10 minutes left to play, there’s still a slim hope of victory because “it ain’t over till…”. The most likely origin is in German opera and, in particular, Richard Wagner’s immensely long four-opera “Ring Cycle”. Throughout the 14-hours of a full performance the plot twists and turns and only in the final act is everything resolved. That final act features the formidable female character of Brunnhilde, usually depicted as a rather portly woman wearing a winged helmet, metal breastplate and carrying a spear. So if someone sitting through the epic opera is tempted to ask “When will it end?”, the answer would, of course, be: “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: Here’s a commonly heard proverb which tells us if something if working adequately well, don’t be tempted to tinker with it, but instead leave it well alone. The reason, of course, is that if you try to improve it, you could end up with something that works far less well than the original, if at all. This proverb applies not just to physical objects, but to relationships, systems and procedures, in fact, all manner of situations. The wisdom of it probably dates from man’s earliest times, but the precise wording of the proverb is much younger, dating from the 1970s. If it sounds American, that’s because it is. The phrase is usually attributed to Thomas Bertram Lance, a senior figure in US President Jimmy Carter’s government. He was quoted in a US Chamber of Commerce as saying: “That’s the trouble with government: fixing things that aren’t broken and not fixing things that are broken.” People who recognised that scenario soon adopted the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” ethos to combat it, and the proverb quickly spread across the USA and beyond.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: If you suspect someone close to you is copying the way you look, speak or behave, it’s easy to become annoyed at that person. But consider this – it could be that he or she admires you and is simply trying to emulate you to better themselves. That’s the essence of this proverb, which can be found in various forms since at least the 16th century. Its origin could be in religion, which urged believers not only to worship their God, but to live their life in a way which demonstrated godliness. This would be the sincerest type of worship, ‘walking the walk’ rather than just ‘talking the talk’. The current wording of this proverb is found in print from 1820, attributed to Charles Caleb Colton. In writing “Imitation is the sincerest of flattery” he was making the point that to imitate someone is to flatter that person without necessarily being aware of it.
If ‘ifs’ and ‘ands’ were pots and pans there’d be no need for tinkers’ hands: Here a longer than usual proverb which takes a bit of thinking through and seems to be falling out of fashion these days. Essentially it tells us that wishful thinking – along the lines of ‘if only I had…’ or ‘and if this thing happened…’ – is worthless in the real world. If such wishes could be translated into solid and useful items like new pots and pans, then there would be no need for ‘tinkers’ – itinerant workers who travelled from place to place mending pans and other metal utensils. The fact that tinkers were very much needed to repair old and worn out pans was evidence of the futility of wishing for a new one. Like many proverbs, this one was often used as a retort, in this case to someone’s wishful thinking.
It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness: Instead of complaining bitterly about something you dislike, take whatever step you can to change it, even if it costs you a little. Thought to originate from an ancient Chinese proverb (of which there are quite a few!), it was brought to public attention by English lawyer and the founder of Amnesty International, Peter Benenson. He used it at a Human Rights Day celebration in 1961, where he also lit a candle surrounded by a coil of barbed wire – an image which has since become the emblem of Amnesty International. In America the proverb gained popularity after it was used by President John F. Kennedy. ‘Darkness’ has long been used, especially in religious texts, as a metaphor for evil or ignorance, so it follows that ‘lighting a candle’ is a metaphor for combating those things.