the.com/proverb
folk wisdom compressed so hard it survives centuries without a single citation.
means A short, well-known saying that states a general truth or piece of practical advice, usually handed down through generations.
from From Latin proverbium, built from pro- 'forth, in public' plus verbum 'word' — literally a phrase 'put forth' for everyone to repeat. It traveled into English through Old French proverbe in the medieval period. So the word itself carries its own meaning: words sent out into the world to be passed mouth to mouth.
- oldest source
- Sumerian proverbs predate the Bible by a millennium
- self-contradiction
- look before you leap fights he who hesitates is lost
- global twins
- same wisdom appears independently across unrelated languages
- academic field
- paremiology studies proverbs as serious scholarship
- memory trick
- rhythm and rhyme make them stick without writing